It was a dramatic Sunday at Jerez as Toprak Razgatlioglu won his third World Superbike title ahead of Nicolo Bulega after a tense final race.
BMW rider Razgatlioglu, who won the championship in 2021 and 2024, came into the weekend with a sizeable 39-point lead over Ducati’s Bulega.
That margin dropped as Bulega won the opening race on Saturday ahead of Razgatlioglu, but there was drama to come in Sunday’s Superpole sprint race.
Moments after Rea and Gardner had come together on the opening lap, Bulega went for a gap up the inside of leader Razgatlioglu, but the riders made contact and the Turkish rider slid into the gravel.
Bulega was handed a long-lap penalty for the incident but had enough pace in hand to win the sprint race and bring Razgatlioglu’s lead down to 22 points ahead of the final race.
The Italian rider controlled the race to complete a weekend hat-trick of wins, but all eyes were on Razgatlioglu to see if he could finish about the 13th place required after his earlier crash.
In the end, Razgatlioglu charged from 10th to third place to win his third championship in his final World Superbike race before he moves to MotoGP in 2026 with Yamaha.
“We did an incredible season. Thank you very much everyone, my team, everyone worked so hard,” Razgatlioglu told TNT Sports.
“I love this paddock, I know all the teams, everyone is respectful. I’ll really miss this paddock. But maybe in the future I will come back here again.”