Last week at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic, Alvaro Bautista set a record for the most wins in a Superbike World Championship season after a dramatic mid-race contest with Toprak Razgatlioglu. It was his 18th overall win with 14 coming in feature races and another four in Superpole races.
Coming off a disastrous Race 1 in which he finished 12th, Bautista got off the line slowly, but quickly found speed and took the lead in Turn 1. On the opening lap, Axel Bassani would not allow him to get away clean, taking the lead momentarily in a corner before running off course and dropping precipitously through the field.
That would set the tone for the next 16 laps. Bautista had to be patient and aggressive concurrently.
As Bautista settled into the lead for a couple of laps, Razgatlioglu, his closest competition in the points’ standings and the second-place finisher of Race 1, settled into fourth at the start. Razgatlioglu seemed to be in control of the weekend with a second-place finish in Race 1 and a victory in the Superpole race.
And it did not take long to express his power again. It took three laps for Razgatlioglu to move into second; he grabbed the lead on Lap 7 in Turn 13. It was then that the race became exciting.
The two remained hooked together with Bautista and Razgatlioglu crossing the finish line side-by-side over the next seven laps. Bautista had the horsepower to pull up on his rival each time, but Razgatlioglu had the inside line and refused to give ground in Turn 1, putting his bike dangerously on the rumble strips.
With eight to go, Bautista moved to the inside of Razgatlioglu but the leader chopped off his nose. Bautista decided discretion was better than valor.
Two laps later, Razgatlioglu finally began to put some distance on Bautista with an advantage of a couple of bike lengths, but that speed came at a price. Razgatlioglu crashed in Turn 3 at the beginning of Lap 17, allowing Bautista to cruise to his record-setting 18th victory.
The crash ended a streak of 20 consecutive podium finishes for Razgatlioglu.
Given Bautista’s commanding points lead, the race was more intense than many might have anticipated. Bautista dominated the opening rounds of the 2023 Superbike season, sweeping the feature races in the first six rounds. His four Superpole wins came in four of those six rounds, but each time Bautista was beaten prior to the Czech Republic races, it was Razgatlioglu that led the field to the finish line.
There was additional pressure on Bautista’s shoulders.
During the 2022 season, the longest Bautista went without a win was four consecutive races. He entered Race 2 at Autodrom Most with the undesirable chance to tie that after retiring early in Race 2 at the Imola Circuit in Italy and finishing third the Czech Superpole race to Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea.
Bautista’s 18th win of the season was the 50th of his career.
Rea, a distant third in the points standings, won Race 1 at Autodrom Most.