The pair had one of their closest battles of the season in♍ the early stages of Race 1 before the reigning WorldSBK cham꧙pion pulled clear.

Something that’s becoming a regular occurrence for Razgatlioglu, the Yamaha rider had the pace to match Bautista when plenty of grip was aꩲvailable.

• Bautista after huge tankslapper: “Lucky that I could stop theᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ bike” 
• Imola Wo♒rld Superbike Race (1) Results: Bautista breaks Razgatlioglu's defence

But as the tyres startꦍed to drop Bautista got faster and faster and was able to set lap times that pushed Razgatlioglu into setting his fastest laps of the ra♏ce, albeit they were still a few tenths slower.

Disappointed to miss out on a feature leng꧃th race winꦕ once again, Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com: "I’m waiting for 100 wins! We have time for this. Today, wasn’t a bad race. 

"I’m not 100% happy𝔉 because I finished the race in second position. My goal is to win a race. 

"In Race 1, I was feeling good but when the tyres started to drop, I saw the Du♐cati still had very good acceleration. I tried to keep fighting with him, but it wasn’t enough. It’s beওtter than nothing."

Like Razgatlioglu, Jonathan Rea also showed very strong pace during the first half of the race before coming across the line in a quiet th🦂ird place. 

The Kawasaki rider was able to keep pace with the two leaders whilst they were battling, but when Bautista finally got the lead on lap eight, the gaps started to grꦅow between the top three.

Rea said: "It was very tough! One of those races wher🌞e I didn’t expect to be on the podium, even if it’s alwa🐲ys the target. 

"After a very tough Friday and Superpole, sta🌄rting from 7 was difficult. I cut through the traffic very well in the first laps and got good track position, but then I didn’t have anything for Toprak or Alvaro. 

"They were just a little bit faster than me but I was the best of the rest. We need to improve in some areas for tomorrow; the bike feels quite goodℱ in the heavy braking zones but finishing the corner, we’re not good enough. 

"We have some good data to move tomorrow and for the Superpole Race, I fee💜l like we can be competitive enough; w🔯e need to get a good start and see where we are."