The closest finish in Superbike history! Bulega beats Toprak with photo finish and Bautista podium
History in the Superbike World Championship! The Superpole race in Estoril had an exciting ending between the only two candidates for the title. Nicolo Bulega did not want to give up and ended up moving to Toprakwho had been first almost the entire race, in the finish line with a photo finish, in what has become the closest finish in the history of the category. A victory, which can help him in the championship, although it needs a miracle and does not depend on him. Álvaro Bautista made up for his fall yesterday and got on the podium.
Without a slight error, Toprak again made a good start and maintained first position. For his part, Bautista’s bad start, who went from 11th to 15th, battling with Lecuona in the opening laps, but quickly returned to his starting position.
The rivals did not make it easy for the Turk, and he did not want to take too many risks, aware that he has a huge advantage. On the first lap, Petrucci, Locatelli and Rea passed himalthough on the finish line, the BMW runs a lot and was able to recover two positions, only to put itself first again on the second lap and begin to escape.
Xavi Vierge is feeling very well this weekend and taking advantage of the Yamaha’s fight with Petrucci, he was able to get 5th. Meanwhile, Bulega did the same and quickly moved from sixth position to second, which is what he had to do if he wanted to maintain his chances.
Comeback by Bautista and Bulega attacks Toprak
For its part, Álvaro Bautista continued to climb and on lap number 4 he was already in sixth position attacking Viergein another battle between Spaniards, after the ‘1’ surpassed Lecuona in the first round. It didn’t take him long to overtake Vierge and he quickly showed him the bike.
Bulega tried to get closer to Toprak, but he couldn’t cut more than a few hundredths of a second, which was insufficient, since he was more than half a second ahead of him, a sufficient distance to have some peace of mind. Álvaro began to look at the podium and overtook Petrucci on the straight to take fourth position and make up for the crash in the first race on Saturday.
Nico Bulega does not give up and wins
With three laps left, Álvaro took advantage of the fact that the Yamaha loses a lot on the straight and placed third, consolidating his podium. which was the best, because he was 3 seconds behind his teammate. Although Bulega began to push a little more, Toprak had everything in his favor, since he had a certain margin. Of course, in the penultimate step across the finish line the Italian tried.
He came out two tenths from the first corner on the last lap, and The Italian was able to stay very close, aware that if he managed to be within a short distance he could take advantage of the Ducati’s engine and the slipstream effect that is very powerful in Estoril. And said and done, he did not want to detach himself from the world championship any further, he came out of the last corner on top of Toprak and He ended up overtaking him on the straight, passing 0.003 ahead at the finish line, the closest distance in Superbike history. between first and second. Bautsita crossed third and signed a new podium.
