Defending champion Alvaro Bautista reasserted his dominance in this year’s World Superbike Championship as a Race Two win at Magny-Cours extended his series advantage to 57 points.
Toprak Razgatlioglu’s Race One win and Superpole triumph had cut Bautista’s lead, only for the Spaniard to respond.
Bautista was ahead in Race Two when a crash forced a restart but was even more dominant when the riders returned.
Razgatlioglu edged a battle for second with Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Rea.
The Turkish rider and Rea swapped second and third places on several occasions as Bautista pulled clear, but Razgatlioglu produced a strong final lap to finish nearly a second ahead of the Northern Irishman.
Rea will move to Razgatlioglu’s Yamaha team for the 2024 season as the Turkish star switches to BMW.
After leading by over seven seconds at the start of the final lap, Bautista slowed on his Ducati in the closing stages as he came in 5.893 seconds ahead of Razgatlioglu to secure his 19th win of the season.
