Yamaha’s Jonathan Rea salvaged a point after pulling off a jaw-dropping save when he almost crashed out in Saturday’s opening World Superbike race of the weekend at Portimao in Portugal.
The Northern Ireland rider was holding fifth place in the early stages when he lost the front of the Pata Prometeon machine at Turn 13.
Rea, though, dug his knee in the tarmac and somehow managed to avoid going down as he picked the Yamaha back up and averted disaster.
The six-time World Champion lost a few places as he dropped to seventh after the incident and Rea was unable to recover, slipping to 10th position before losing further ground and eventually crossing the line in the final points-scoring spot in 15th.
The 37-year-old remains in 10th position in the Championship ahead of Sunday’s Superpole and second 20-lap races, which are scheduled for 2.45pm BST and 6.00pm BST respectively.
Championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu secured his 13th win of the season and a record-equalling 11th consecutive victory — a feat only previously managed by Ulsterman Rea and Spaniard Alvaro Bautista.
Rea, who qualified on the third row in eighth on Saturday, will be determined to set the record straight today after running strongly in the top five before his near-miss.
He is continuing to work hard with his team on the set-up of the Yamaha R1 after making the move from Kawasaki following nine seasons.
“We have arrived here after a lot of analysis after Donington and Most to have a different base set-up on the bike, especially from a chassis point of view,” said Rea, who achieved his first rostrum result for Yamaha at Donington Park in the Superpole race last month, taking third.
“We have been arriving at the end of races with a lot of tyre and not utilising that Pirelli grip at the beginning of the race.
“There are some critical areas we have to improve, some of the other Yamahas are stronger in that area [maximising tyre performance early in the race], we can maybe learn something and be stronger.
“Sector four is an area I need to improve, there are a few areas that we know are going to be very difficult to improve on. We need to utilise the positives of the bike elsewhere on the track,” added Rea.
“We are going to keep working with the set-up of the Yamaha R1 and see how we go.”
Race winner Razgatlioglu — 80 points clear in the title race for the official BMW Motorrad team — now has the chance to set a record of 12 wins in Sunday’s Superpole race.
The Turkish rider left the Pata Yamaha team to join BMW in a move that shocked the World Superbike paddock, but Razgatlioglu has turned the M1000RR machine in a serial winner as he targets a second world crown with Northern Ireland’s Phil Marron in his corner as his trusted crew chief.
The 27-year-old won by 0.780s from current champion Bautista (Aruba Ducati), who mounted a stirring fightback after languishing in 13th on the first lap.
Italian Danilo Petrucci rounded out the top three on the Barni Spark Ducati, 0.670s behind Bautista.
American Garrett Gerloff was fourth on the Bonovo Action BMW ahead of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team), with Razgatlioglu’s team-mate Michael van der Mark sixth.
British rider Scott Redding crashed out on the Bonovo BMW while fellow former British Superbike champion Bradley Ray was outside the points in 17th position on the Motoxracing Yamaha.
After this weekend, five rounds remain, with Magny-Cours in France next on a calendar dominated by European venues from September 6-8, with Phillip Island in Australia back in February the sole overseas race meeting.