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World Superbikes Barcelona: Jonathan Rea forced to retire as Toprak Razgatlioglu wins

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Jonathan Rea and his Yamaha teamImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Jonathan Rea won his most recent world title in 2020

Northern Ireland's six-time world champion Jonathan Rea endured another difficult day at the second round of World Superbike races in Barcelona.

Turkey's Toprak Razgatlioglu earned his first win for BMW in race one at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, edging Italy's Nicolo Bulega on the last lap.

That was still enough to lift Bulega one point above England's Alex Lowes at the top of the championship standings.

Lowes finished sixth but twin brother Sam Lowes crashed out while leading.

Rea's frustrating start with Yamaha continued as the 37-year-old was forced to retire at the end of his first lap in Saturday's 20-lap race.

It comes after he finishing in a lowly 17th position in his first competitive outing for the team and then had to be stretchered off the circuit following a crash in race two in the opening round at Phillip Island, Australia in February.

Rea spoke of feeling "lost" amid handling problems with his bike that weekend - and an early mechanical issue ended his hopes of achieving progress in race one in Spain.

England's Alex Lowes had led the series by nine points from Bulega after winning two of the three races on the opening weekend.

Bulega appeared on course to replicate the race one win he achieved in Australia but Razgatlioglu was able to make up a deficit of almost four seconds at halfway to overhaul the Italian in a dramatic final lap.

It completed a double for Razgatlioglu on Saturday, after he also claimed his first pole position for BMW by setting a record-breaking pace in Barcelona's Superpole race.

The 27-year-old clocked a lap record one minute 39.489 seconds as a total of 10 riders finished quicker than the existing lap record.

The race did not go to plan for Sam Lowes, despite a promising start which saw him lead the race. A crash on turn 10 ended his challenge and gave Bulega the advantage - but it was Razgatlioglu's day.

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