Jerez WorldSBK: Chaos Reigns In Spain
T
he big winner at the start of a
warm and welcoming Spanish
WorldSBK round at Jerez, June
8-9, was championship leader
Alvaro Bautista and his Aruba.it
Ducati Panigale V4 R. After some
time to adjust to the heat on
Friday, he was masterful in race
one on Saturday and the 10-lap
Sunday Tissot Superpole race.
Then, suddenly, disaster—as
Bautista fell in turn one of lap two
during race two on Sunday, los-
ing the front and gifting the lead
to his one realistic championship
challenger, Jonathan Rea (Kawa-
saki Racing Team). After repairs,
Bautista finished the race only
to be classified a non-finisher for
not completing two-thirds of it.
He was, however, positively
upbeat in the media scrum after-
ward. "I just crashed, I lost the
front. These things can happen,"
he said. "Many riders crashed in
the past, and they will crash in
the future! No problem, it is just a
situation."
His loss was not actually a
monumental gain for Rea, who
ended up getting beaten by the
first-time 2019 winner Michael
van der Mark (Pata Yamaha), who
had the pace of Rea and won by
a clear margin in the final race.
In race one, Rea had clattered
into the side of Alex Lowes' Pata
Yamaha in the final turn, in a clas-
sic Jerez last-corner attempted
pass gone wrong. It was not
deliberate at all, of course, but it
did cause a no-score for his rival
and put Rea third from his fourth
place on the final lap.
A "live" investigation said that
Rea could keep his third place,
but an appeal by the Yamaha
team was heard and then accept-
ed. The FIM stewards handed
down a drop one position penalty
to Rea (to fourth), with Van der
Mark already second and a resur-
gent Marco Melandri finally third
on his GRT Yamaha. Not only
IN
THE
WIND
P30
Michael van der Mark
(60) inadvertently
helped out
Alvaro Bautista's
championship lead by
defeating Jonathan Rea
(1) in race two.
