Toprak Razgatlioglu equalled the record for consecutive World Superbike race wins when he made it 11 victories in a row by triumphing in race one in Portugal on Saturday.
It was a hard-fought success for the BMW rider who fended off the challenge of charging double series champion Alvaro Bautista and a clutch of other riders to take the chequered flag at the Portimao circuit.
The Turkish championship frontrunner had just 0.78 seconds to spare over his Ducati-mounted rival, with Italian Danilo Petrucci third after a thrilling battle at the front.
Razgatlioglu now has an 80-point lead over nearest championship rival Nicolo Bulega.
Spaniard Bautista racked up 11 wins in a row in the 2019 and 2023 seasons while Jonathan Rea achieved the feat once on his way to one of his six world titles in 2019.
Polesitter Razgatlioglu will have the opportunity to better the benchmark for successive wins when he competes in Sunday’s Superpole event and the second feature race.
The 2021 champion won the final race at the Assen round in April and has followed that up with trebles at the Italian, United Kingdom and Czech Republic rounds.
Bautista recovered from a poor start to work his way from well down the field to overhaul one-time leader Petrucci and claim his 100th World Superbike podium.
American Garrett Gerloff was fourth, with England’s Alex Lowes fifth and Michael van der Mark making up the top six.
Northern Ireland’s Rea was 15th at a course for which he holds the record number of wins with 13.
