Saturday’s track action for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is over after a sensational Race 1, where Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team)  destroyed the lap record in Superpole before dominating the race. It was a strong showing for BMW, with Razgatlioglu being joined on the front row by Scott Redding (Bonovo Action BMW) after the British rider started third on the grid.

Things were beginning to look up for Redding, who was latched onto the back of the #54 in the opening stages of the race. Redding was running in P2 until there were 19 laps to go, with Nicolo Bulega passing the #45. The British rider would drop to fifth when his race soon came to a halt with five laps remaining – suffering a mechanical issue at Turn 11.

Discussing the technical issue that ended his race, Redding said: “It is a shame to come out with a bit of a mechanical because even if I finished fifth, I would have been relatively happy with that and have something to work on and we would have it in the bank. While now I still need to get the result and try again tomorrow to try and make it better for me.”

Up until his retirement, Redding was hot on the pace and one of the quickest riders through Sector 2 on Saturday afternoon. The #45 was very consistent, running inside the low 1’26 bracket throughout Race 1.

Speaking about the start of his race and his plan for Race 1: “I started to grit my teeth and not think about saving my tyre as I wanted to get in the mix of the race. I was trying to race smart but hard. I struggled to get the bike stopped a little bit because I was using the SC0 rear tyre, which hasn’t been my favourite this weekend but it is the only race option for the longer races.”

Now looking ahead to Sunday, Redding believes that a shorter race could benefit him ahead of Race 2: “We have the Superpole Race tomorrow and we need a good result there to get a good qualifying for Race 2. I think we may be able to use a different tyre which may favour me a little bit. I would love to bag a podium here as when you are top five you are close and you can battle it out with a few laps to go. I didn’t feel really comfortable today in the race with the tyre, so with some setting changes maybe we can make me feel comfortable so I will be able to ride like I was in qualifying and the other Practice sessions and yeah, I will give everything for a podium.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com