VOLUME 56 ISSUE 27 JULY 9, 2019 P25
"To win the second race was
really special—the best of the
weekend," Rea said. "Another
nice fight with Toprak, who was
really strong in some areas of the
track, and I was able to be strong
in others. I seriously did not
expect these kind of results this
weekend."
Bautista looked nowhere near
a Donington win and declared
himself happy to have escaped
injury after his fast, race-one
fall—a highside in the wet at
Schwantz Curve. His fourth in
the Superpole race, and then
his third place in the finale were
strong rides all right, but the
latter proved his bike has gone
from heavenly to handful, as the
season has gone on. The bike
seems unstable at times, and
Bautista agrees.
"For sure the two zeros I made
in Jerez and Misano were very
important," Bautista said. "Yes-
terday I consider it more like the
conditions and the rain. I crashed
for that. But the other two was
our fault. Because of that, we are
now in second position, and it is
interesting for the championship.
For us, for Ducati, we have to un-
derstand that we have to improve
the bike. It is too new, and there
are a lot of negative points we
have to improve."
The once seemingly impos-
sible resurgence of Rea and
Kawasaki has clearly spread to
some of the top Yamaha and
BMW riders of late as well, as
the 2019 early season monotony
of Bautista winning everything
and the WorldSBK regular riders
and teams were being force-fed
humble pie, has pretty much
ended.
Maybe Bautista will come to
truly regret saying recently that
he has raised the level in WorldS-
BK, because if he has then first
Rea, and now a few others are
matching it and beating him. At
least sometimes.
For the neutral, it is a glori-
ously unpredictable season
now, even if Rea or Bautista are
the only genuine championship
contenders. But the contention is
entirely genuine.
In the ever-changing points
table, Rea now has 376 points,
Bautista 352, Van der Mark 206,
Lowes 192, Haslam 187, and
Razgatlioglu 153.
WorldSSP
Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha)
won for the second time this
year at Donington. Not bad for a
man who had been sidelined in
the top Yamaha status recently
by not one but two Bardahl Evan
Bros R6 riders—championship
leader Randy Krummenacher
Rea leads Donington Park specialist Tom Sykes in the Superpole race.
