Scott Redding takes second WorldSBK win of 2021 in Estoril

Aruba.it Ducati rider Scott Redding took his second consecutive WorldSBK win of the 2021 season after a close battle with pre race favorite Toprak Razgatlioglu. 

While the lead never changed during the race, the two riders were inseparable until the final couple of laps as Redding eked out a small gap of eight tenths. 

With Razgatlioglu coming under pressure from Jonathan Rea, it helped relieve the pressure Razgatlioglu was applying to Redding. 

Speaking after his victory, Redding said: "I felt pretty good. I wasn’t really confident before the race because I saw Toprak [Razgatlioglu] had good pace earlier in the weekend, then the two Kawasaki’s were quite strong today, so I was not really confident. 

"I just said okay, ‘on the start, go to the front, and you’re going to have to muscle your way around a little bit’. 

"I was quite good but a couple of small mistakes I was making in turn one kept costing me about two tenths that I would gap, then I would lose it again."

Throughout the 21 lap race the gap was chopping and changing in various sector points, however, the former MotoGP rider was especially fast in sector three. 

Redding was able to increase the gap at this part of the circuit on quite a few occasions. Their was also a split strategy at the front with Redding and Razgatlioglu using the less durable SCX tyre, compared to Rea and the harder ‘zero’ tyre he had fitted.  

Redding was happy with the performance of the tyre saying: "In general, quite happy. The tyre worked okay. I went off the start and went ‘you chose the SCX! Is this really a good idea’? So I was a little bit in panic mode for a while, but it stayed quite stable. 

"I was quite lucky because I think Toprak had the same tyre, only Jonathan [Rea] had the zero (tyre), so it was good. It paid off here because it’s not so abrasive. We’ll see tomorrow, maybe we’ll try the zero."