With victory in the first round of the 2022 Superbike World Championship in Portimão, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) reduced the gap to Álvaro Bautista (Ducati), who finished second. Philipp Öttl (Ducati) in 12th place.
30 minutes after Superpole the result was corrected. The front row remained identical with Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki), Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki), behind which there were various changes. The reason for this was the cancellation of the fastest lap by several drivers, which was driven under the yellow flag, but was then withdrawn.
Among others, World Championship leader Álvaro Bautista (Ducati) moved up from 9th to fourth position. Axel Bassani (6th/Ducati), Scott Redding (8th/BMW), Michael Rinaldi (9th/Ducati) and Philipp Öttl (12th/Ducati) also got their best times back.
The start of the first Superbike run was delayed by more than an hour until the rescue helicopter, who took Victor Steeman to the hospital for the 300 pilot, was back at the track ready for action. The race distance was therefore reduced from the original 21 to 14 laps.
After the start, Rea and Razgatlioglu initially pulled away at the front, followed by the Ducati pilots Bassani and Bautista with a respectable gap. While the world champion took the lead from lap 6 and was able to pull away, Rea and Bautista fought for second place. In the end, the Turk crossed the finish line as the winner with a lead of 0.7 seconds. Bautista secured second place on the podium with Rea third.
The fight for 4th place between Bassani and Lowes was more exciting than at the front – with the better ending for the Italian.
Because Scott Redding crashed on the last lap while in 7th place, Loris Baz finished ninth as the best BMW driver. The first race was also disappointing for Honda with 9th place thanks to Xavi Vierge.
Philipp Öttl had a bad starting lap and fell back to 20th place. The German in the Italian Go Eleven team bravely fought his way up the field, but couldn’t get past 12th place in the shortened race.
Guest starter Marvin Fritz (YART) was classified 21st.
This is how the race went:
Start: Rea ahead of Razgatlioglu and Lowes into the first corner, then Bassani in the Bautista and Locatelli. Oettl on 13.
Lap 1: Rea ahead, Lowes past Razgatlioglu. Bautista (5th), Redding (7th), Vierge (10th). Fritz in 18th place, Öttl only in 20th place.
Lap 2: Rea 0.7s ahead of Razgatlioglu and Bassani. Then Lowes and Bautista. Fastest race lap Rea in 1:40.604 min.
Lap 3: Rea, Razgatlioglu and Bassani within 0.9s. Bautista grabbed 4th place from Lowes. Redding in 6th place. Razgatlioglu was the fastest with a time of 1:40.328 minutes.
Lap 4: Razgatlioglu on Rea’s back wheel. Bautista (4th) catches up to Bassani (3rd). Locatelli and Redding fight for 6th place. Öttl on 18th place.
Lap 5: The top 4 within just 0.8 seconds. Lowes alone in 5th place, then Locatelli, Redding and Rinaldi.
Lap 6: Razgatlioglu outbrakes Rea at Turn 1 and leads the race. Oettl on 16.
Lap 7: Razgatlioglu and Rea 0.5s ahead of Bassani and Bautista.
Lap 8: Razgatlioglu and Rea break away. Bautista makes short work of Bassani and gives chase. Redding (7th) is already 6.5 seconds behind, Vierge (9th) even 9.6 seconds. Öttl is in 15th place and on the back wheel of Michael van der Mark (BMW).
Lap 9: Razgatlioglu 0.5s ahead of Rea and Bautista. Bassani and Lowes fight for 4th place. Öttl past van der Mark in 14th place. Fritz in 21st place.
Lap 10: Rea’s lap times are slowing down, only Razgatlioglu and Bautista are still under 1:41 min. Öttl (14th) is catching up massively on Mahias (12th) and Lecuona (13th).
Lap 11: Razgatlioglu 1.2s ahead of Bautista and Rea.
Lap 12: Rea loses 0.6s per lap to the top 2 and is even slower than Bassani and Lowes behind him! Öttl on the back wheel of Lecuona and Mahias.
Lap 13: Razgatlioglu 1sec ahead of Bautista and 2.4sec ahead of Rea. Öttl past Mahias in 13th place. Redding in 7th place.
Last lap: Razgatlioglu wins ahead of Bautista and Rea. Redding crashes on last lap! Öttl in 12th place.
| Result Superbike World Championship: Portimão, race 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | driver | Motorrad | time |
| 1. | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Yamaha | |
| 2. | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | + 0,657 sec |
| 3. | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | + 3,032 |
| 4. | Axel Bassani | Ducati | + 4,471 |
| 5. | Alex Lowes | Kawasaki | + 4,562 |
| 6. | Andrea Locatelli | Yamaha | + 8,805 |
| 7. | Michael Rinaldi | Ducati | + 12,614 |
| 8. | xavi virgin | Honda | + 17,290 |
| 9. | Loris Baz | BMW | + 17,450 |
| 10. | Garrett Gerloff | Yamaha | + 17,719 |
| 11. | Iker Lecuona | Honda | + 21,391 |
| 12. | Philipp Oettl | Ducati | + 21,628 |
| 13. | Lucas Mahias | Kawasaki | + 22,972 |
| 14. | Michael vd Mark | BMW | + 25,808 |
| 15. | Eugene Laverty | BMW | + 29,879 |
| 16. | Roberto Tamburini | Yamaha | + 30,268 |
| 17. | Luca Bernardi | Ducati | + 30,919 |
| 18. | Scott Redding | BMW | + 33,785 |
| 19. | Jake Gains | Yamaha | + 34,173 |
| 20. | About Nozane | Yamaha | + 38,133 |
| 21. | Marvin Fritz | Yamaha | + 39,000 |
| 22. | Christophe Ponsson | Yamaha | + 41,101 |
| 23. | Leandro Mercado | Honda | + 47,660 |
| 24. | Oliver King | Kawasaki | > 1 min |
| out | Leon Haslam | Kawasaki | |
| out | Hafizh Syahrin | Honda | |
| Status Superbike World Championship 2022 after 25 of 36 races | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | driver | Motorrad | Points |
| 1. | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 414 |
| 2. | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Yamaha | 360 |
| 3. | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 343 |
| 4. | Michael Rinaldi | Ducati | 214 |
| 5. | Andrea Locatelli | Yamaha | 183 |
| 6. | Axel Bassani | Ducati | 183 |
| 7. | Alex Lowes | Kawasaki | 172 |
| 8. | Iker Lecuona | Honda | 163 |
| 9. | Scott Redding | BMW | 147 |
| 10. | xavi virgin | Honda | 107 |
| 11. | Garrett Gerloff | Yamaha | 98 |
| 12. | Loris Baz | BMW | 95 |
| 13. | Philipp Oettl | Ducati | 70 |
| 14. | Lucas Mahias | Kawasaki | 50 |
| 15. | Roberto Tamburini | Yamaha | 34 |
| 16. | Luca Bernardi | Ducati | 32 |
| 17. | Eugene Laverty | BMW | 27 |
| 18. | Michael vd Mark | BMW | 20 |
| 19. | About Nozane | Yamaha | 14 |
| 20. | Xavi Fores | Ducati | 12 |
| 21. | Ilya Mikhalchik | BMW | 10 |
| 22. | Christophe Ponsson | Yamaha | 9 |
| 23. | Hafizh Syahrin | Honda | 4 |
| 24. | Leon Haslam | Kawasaki | 4 |
| 25. | Tarran Mackenzie | Yamaha | 3 |
| 26. | Peter Hickman | BMW | 2 |
| 27. | Leandro Mercado | Honda | 2 |