VOLUME 56 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 P43
race setup and changed it for the
final contest.
Chaz Davies (Ducati) was sec-
ond in race one, having one of
his weirder weekends. A "poor"
Superpole—his word—was trans-
lated into a superb fight through
to second place, 3.8 seconds
from Rea, who was slowing up.
Third in race one was the tall
figure of Michael van der Mark
(Yamaha) who reached third on
lap five and only had Chaz Davies
to fight with after that.
Tom Sykes was on strong form
to start, from second place on
the grid but dropped away and
then crashed, finishing 13th, ap-
propriately enough.
Bautista also had a storming
ride on Saturday, as an early
and aggressive pass by Davies
put Bautista wide into turn one.
Coming back, he eased past
Leon Haslam (KRT) and Toprak
Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti
Racing) like they were standing
still on the straight.
Rea again led the 10-lap Su-
perpole race on Sunday from his
pole position, with Sykes again
dropping back quickly to finish
seventh, despite having been
second for three laps.
Bautista came from ninth to
second, finishing up just over two
seconds down on Rea. Lowes
made up for his disappointing day
one with third place in the sprint.
Razgatlioglu was fourth—not bad
from 13th on the grid in only ten
laps—and Haslam fifth again.
The closest we have come in
several ways to a real fight be-
tween the two 2019 title contend-
ers came in race two.
With Rea on pole and Bautista
beside him, Bautista got en-
tangled in the first laps again and
lost all his advantage, ending lap
one sixth.
The race was tight and tense
with Rea leading until lap five and
then Bautista passing both Rea
and Razgatlioglu.
Rea got back into second on
lap seven and tried all he could to
keep Bautista in touching dis-
tance. It was a credit to him and
his bike's all-round capabilities that
he could do that for much of the
race. Bautista stretched out his
lead to 1.3 seconds with just four
laps left, and it looked all done.
Wins
Alvaro Bautista finally struck
back for a win in race two.
