Alvaro Bautista has restored his sizeable advantage in the 2023 WorldSBK Championship standings after Toprak Razgatlioglu sensationally crashed out of the lead during Race 2 at Most.

The Aruba.it Ducati rider had looked on course for second place after failing in his bid to wrest the lead from Razgatlioglu only for the Pata Yamaha man to suffer a rare crash having just broken clear with just under six laps to go.

His success marks Bautista's 18th victory of 2023 in what is a new record for a rider in a single season of WorldSBK and rebuilds an advantage that had been whittled down to 49 points back up to 74 points.

Danilo Petrucci won a sprint to the line over Jonathan Rea to secure the best result of his rookie campaign.

Razgatlioglu's crash out of the lead brought an abrupt end to the momentum he'd build up on the back of three wins from four races.

Indeed, having taken the lead on lap four at the expense of Jonathan Rea, the 2021 WorldSBK Champion spent much of the race duking it out with Bautista, the Spaniard unable to get the better of his rival on the run into Turn 1 despite several attempts.

Eventually Razgatlioglu managed to break clear of his rival, only to lose the rear of his R1 on the exit of Turn 2 on lap sixteen.

With his main title rival out of contention, Bautista inherited a lead with now a comfortable margin over the chasing pack and with less than six laps left on the clock to complete.

Keeping it clean to the chequered flag, Bautista's win sees him write his name in the WorldSBK record books for most wins achieved in a single season. One of the few that now doesn't read Jonathan Rea underneath, Bautista has another 16 races remaining to extend his new marker.

Some 4.5secs further back, Petrucci came through for second on the Barni Spark Ducati after nosing past on the dash to the finish line against both Rea and Axel Bassani.

Bassani's run to fourth came after a mighty fightback from 12th place after he ran off at Turn 1 on lap two while leading.

His comeback took him past Michael Ruben Rinaldi late on, the Italian crossing the line in fifth place, ahead of Remy Gardner, who once again equalled his best result of the season in sixth place on the GYTR GRT Yamaha.

Andrea Locatelli bounced back from his DNF in race two with a run to seventh, ahead of eighth place Scott Redding, the ex-MotoGP rider assuming the mantle as the best-placed BMW rider after Garrett Gerloff crashed out at Turn 1 on the opening lap.

Xavi Vierge was the best of the Honda riders in ninth place, ahead of Loris Baz in tenth, while Dominique Aegerter, Iker Lecuona, Philipp Oettl, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark rounded out the top fifteen to collect the last of the points.

Most WorldSBK | Race 2 Results