Ducati’s Scott Redding got the better of Saturday nemesis Toprak Razgatlioglu to win the second WorldSBK feature race and prevent the Turk taking a victory hat-trick.
Redding took the lead from Razgatlioglu early doors and didn’t look back, crossing the line with a three-second led while the Yamaha man reduced Jonathan Rea’s point leads to just three.
Redding rounded out a perfect race with a marriage proposal - accepted - to his girlfriend on the top step of the podium.
An early lead for Razgatlioglu was upturned by the sheer pace of Redding, with both those leading riders gapping the field to the tune of three seconds long before half race distance.
Behind the top two Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) finally had to yield third place to Rea with 14 laps to go.
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was an integral part of the leading five early on but dropped pace to ride in fifth place on his own with half the race left to run. He was fifth all the way until the penultimate lap when Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) passed him, relegating Lowes to sixth.
Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was seventh, just holding off Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha).
Long time top six rider Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) ended up a disappointed ninth, with Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) tenth, one place ahead of his team-mate Leon Haslam (HRC Honda).
A potentially nasty crash into Turn One on lap one saw four riders involved, with Axel Bassani (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) and Alessandro Delbianco (MIE Racing Honda Team) failing to get out of the gravel trap. Bassani was struck by two bikes but walked away from the crash.
In the championship Rea still leads, by a narrow three points. Rea has 266 points, Razgatlioglu 263 and Redding 216 - now just 50 points behind Rea.
