Rea beats Razgatlioglu to win on last lap

As was the case in Saturday’s opening contest, pole-sitter Rea lost the lead at the start of the race, with Razgatlioglu making a superior launch from second place to grab the holeshot into Turn 1.

Rea then ran wide at the hairpin later on the opening lap, allowing Razgatlioglu some breathing space in the early stages of the 10-lap race.

However, the Ulsterman took little time to close the gap back to the Yamaha rider and at the start of lap 3 he used the superior grunt of the Kawasaki to grab the lead again.

Razgatlioglu fought back four laps later, passing Rea under the brakes into Turn 1 as they continued a fierce battle for victory.

It appeared that Razgatlioglu had finally done enough to score a first win of 2022 as the final lap began, but he had a major moment going into the Turn 9/10 chicane, allowing Rea to come through and snatch victory from his grasp.

This was the second time in two races that the Turkish rider was denied a victory at Estoril, having lost out to Alvaro Bautista in a dash to the finish line on Saturday.

The difference between Rea and Razgatlioglu at the chequered flag was just 0.174s, with championship leader Bautista finishing nearly five seconds back as the best-of-the-rest on the factory Ducati.

Honda’s Iker Lecuona once appeared a serious threat for a podium place as he piled pressure on Bautista with an intermediate-slick tyre combination on a damp but drying track, but his pace faded in the second half of the race and he had to settle for fourth.

Finishing fifth was Andrea Locatelli on the second factory Yamaha, with Alex Lowes ending up right on his tail in sixth on the works Kawasaki.

Scott Redding rocketed to third at the start of the race but his BMW didn’t have the pace to keep up with the frontrunners, the British rider eventually classified seventh and some 10s off the lead.

Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi fended off Xaxi Fores on the satellite Go Eleven bike to claim eighth, as the latter impressed again as a…