The championship heads into its penultimate round of the season with an exciting title fight that sees the Yamaha rider with a first opportunity to secure the trophy. But Jonathan Rea won’t give up easily
13.10.2021 17:18
The San Juan Villicum circuit in Argentina could be the stage for the Superbike 2021 title presentation. An extremely competitive and unpredictable battle between Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea moves overseas, the Turk now having a first opportunity to secure his first trophy in this category. But it will be far from easy and Rea is more than ready to ruin the party.
The highly-anticipated head to head
Having crashed in Portugal due to a mechanical problem, Razgatlioglu is now 24 points ahead of Rea, an advantage that he needs to extend to at least 62 if he wants to finish the job and head on to Indonesia as world champion. Difficult, but not impossible, if we consider the many plot twists we’ve seen so far this season. The Argentinian track is a favourable one for the Northern Irish rider, who’s won four out of five races and always reached the podium there. If he were to win Race 1, the title fight would continue in Asia. The Yamaha rider has scored four podiums at San Juan Villicum to date and can now also count on perfect feeling aboard his R1.
An all-Italian battle
Meanwhile, it’s a brand-new track for the other Iwata rider, Andrea Locatelli, a rookie in the class. He will be keen to run up front and increase his podium tally. And also adding to the excitement of the fight are the Ducatis of Scott Redding, mathematically still in the running for the title (54 points from the leader), and Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who is up against fellow countryman Locatelli for fourth place in the championship. Let’s not forget BMW either, following its Portimao win with Michael van der Mark, and Honda, a podium sitter with Alvaro Bautista in recent races.
Translated by Heather Watson
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