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The ninth round of the 2023 Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at Magny-Cours saw Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista split victories, while Nicolo Bulega and Jeffrey Buis swept WorldSSP and WorldSSP300 respectively.

Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) emerged on top in race one, leading outbound Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider Michael Rinaldi by 2.656s at the chequered flag.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) was third, ahead of pole-setter Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) inside the top five. Defending champion Bautista (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) suffered technical problems in the early stages and fought back to P10.

Bautista rebounded to take the race two victory, ultimately 5.8s clear of superpole race winner Razgatlioglu as Rea completed the top three. The bout was red-flagged on lap five following an incident involving Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Scott Redding (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), with Aegerter declared unfit for racing due to a suspected concussion.

In the restart, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon) fought his way to fourth, as Gerloff rounded out the top five. Australia’s Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha) completed the weekend with 15-11-8 results. Notably Rinaldi, who was brought down in a superpole race incident with Bautista, was forced to return to the pits in race two with a braking issue.

Bautista now leads the 2023 WorldSBK standings by 57 points ahead of Razgatlioglu, with Rea third in the points and 177 from the lead.

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Fresh off signing a contract to step up WorldSBK next year with the Aruba.it Racing Ducati team, Bulega swept both WorldSSP races in France to extend his points lead.

It was Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) and home-hero Valentin Debise (GMT94 Yamaha) who completed the top three in race one, with Debise then finishing ahead of Manzi in race two as the pair completed the rostrum places once more.

Manzi was just half a second from victory in the opening outing, while in race two Debise finished 1.991s from the race lead, well clear of the number 62 at the chequered flag.

Australia’s Luke Power (Motozoo ME AIR Racing) was victorious in the European-based WorldSSP challenge in race two, going 28-18 outright for the round as Tom Edwards (YART Yamaha) went 21-23.

In terms of the 2023 WorldSSP Championship standings, Bulega holds a 60-point lead ahead of Manzi following the French round.

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It was a dream weekend for Buis (MTM Kawasaki) in terms of race results at Magny-Cours, claiming both race wins to take the lead in the WorldSSP300 point standings.

Kevin Sabatucci (Team Flembbo – PI Performances) was second in race one ahead of MTM Kawasaki’s Loris Veneman, while Mirko Gennai (TeamBrCorse) and Jose Luis Perez Gonzalez (Accolade Smrz Racing BGR) completed the rostrum in the final outing.

The R3 bLU cRU Championship also competed at Magny-Cours, as Cameron Swain debuted in the series and achieved 8-10 results. Fellow Australian Jayden Martin went 20-16 across the weekend in the class.

Detailed results