VOLUME 56 ISSUE 25 JUNE 25, 2019 P37
found a new patch of wet while
leading.
The weather in general at
Misano was initially dry on Friday
and then stormy and wet Satur-
day afternoon. Lighting storms
and seemingly ceaseless rain
interrupted racing twice on Satur-
day. One was delayed, one was
started then stopped, and one
was an 18-lapper down from the
planned 21.
Bautista was in sixth in that
weird water park race before
rallying and finding other people
having issues in front of him to go
third.
Bautista won the Superpole
race when Rea had his own
crash, but on Sunday, Rea
worked hard to effectively score
the win while under pressure
from his "own side."
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish
Puccetti Racing) led for the vast
majority of the laps in race two.
Rea and Razgatlioglu had a
thrilling contest that was only just
won with a margin of victory for
Rea of 0.381 seconds.
That win made all the differ-
ence to Rea who maximized on
Bautista's nearly no-score.
Bautista had remounted in the
final race and took two points
for 14th, but it was Rea's day on
Sunday.
"It is unfortunate for him," said
Rea of Bautista's latest fall. "But
he is not invincible, it looks. Of
course, it is always costly when
you make the mistake, and I
picked up the pieces. I never
'won' the race; it was not a domi-
nant race win. The strongest guy
was in the gravel, like Jerez race
two."
On a day of many unusual
happenings, Leon Haslam (KRT)
recovered from some recent
slumps in form and bad luck—in-
cluding a massive highside, a
dislocated thumb, and no-score
on Saturday—to take not one but
two third places on Sunday.
Three Kawasakis on a podium
all together is hardly common-
place, but in 1993 in race two at
Sugo, four Kawasaki riders went
first through fourth.
With Razgatlioglu scoring a po-
dium in each round since Imola,
and Haslam making up ground in
setup, maybe we should be get-
ting more used to the possibility
of all-Kawasaki podiums.
Bautista took the Superpole race win, but that was as happy as he got all weekend.
