Toprak Razgatlioglu is in absolute World Championship form. The BMW driver also scored a hat trick in Donington, winning the first race and the Superpole race as well as 25 points in race 2. Nicolo Bulega finished second ahead of Alex Lowes, who again secured the podium in third place. Scott Redding finished fourth ahead of Alvaro Bautista, who was able to make up for his mistake on the sighting lap. Danilo Petrucci crossed the finish line in sixth place ahead of Andrea Locatelli and Jonathan Rea.
In the drivers’ championship, Toprak Razgatlioglu is pulling further and further ahead of the competition. After his seventh win in a row, he is now 41 points ahead of Nicolo Bulega – Alvaro Bautista is still in third place in the World Championship.
Curious incident before the race: Alvaro Bautista crashed on the sighting lap, i.e. on the way to the starting grid, in the final corner. The reigning world champion fell over his front wheel when braking. He brought his damaged motorcycle back to the grid, the Ducati team only had a hectic 15 minutes to repair the bike. But the motorcycle was ready for use at the start of the race.
The starting line-up: 1. Razgatlioglu, 2. Bulega, 3. Rea, 4. Redding, 5. A. Lowes, 6. Bautista, 7. Locatelli, 8. S. Lowes, 9. Petrucci, 10. Aegerter, 11. Van der Mark, 12. Gardner, 13. Gerloff, 14. Vierge, 15. Rinaldi, 16. Bassani, 17. Ray, 18. Lecuona, 19. Iannone, 20. Rabat, 21. Oettl, 22. Norrodin
This is how the race in Donington went:
BEGIN: Razgatlioglu stays in front. Behind him, Scott Redding lines up behind Nicolo Bulega, Rea is fourth. Locatelli makes an aggressive maneuver against Bautista. Rea makes a mistake in turn 11, Alex Lowes overtakes him for fourth place.
Round 03/23: Petrucci duels with Bautista for 7th place. Further back, Iannone catches Axel Bassani for 11th place. Adam Norrodin crashes in turn eight.
Round 04/23: Razgatlioglu sets the fastest lap and is already more than a second ahead.
Round 06/23: Alex Lowes overtakes Scott Redding in turn nine and is now on course for the podium. Bulega is one second ahead of him. Razgatlioglu has opened up a gap of 1.8 seconds on Bulega.
Round 07/23: Petrucci and Bautista have closed the gap to Locatelli and Rea. Redding is staying close to Lowes.
Round 09/23: Bautista overtakes Rea on the straight before turn eight, who tries to counter but fails.
Round 10/23: Now Petrucci also overtakes Rea in the first sector, who is now only in 8th place.
Round 11/23: Aegerter is duelling with Andrea Iannone for position 10. Iannone passed him temporarily, but Aegerter countered consistently in turn 11.
Round 13/23: Bautista overtakes Locatelli on the Dunlop Straight and is now fifth. At the front, Alex Lowes reduces the gap to Bulega. The gap is now just under a second.
Round 16/23: Petrucci tries a maneuver against Locatelli, but goes too far.
Round 17/23: Now Petrucci squeezes past Locatelli. Rea almost has a chance to profit as Locatelli has to go wide.
Round 18/23: Andrea Iannone has to abandon the race. He quickly disappears into the pits. Apparently he has severe arm pump problems.
Round 22/23: Everything is clear at the top, only Scott Redding has to watch out for Alvaro Bautista. The world champion is just over a second behind him. Locatelli and Rea are fighting for 7th place.
GOAL: TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU WINS! He takes his third win of the weekend, his ninth of the season and his seventh success in a row! Nicolo Bulega comes in second, Alex Lowes takes third place ahead of Scott Redding and Alvaro Bautista.