Cycle News

VOLUME 57 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 4, 2020 P33 his big problem, which was to be partially solved in the outdoor sauna of Jerez on Sunday. And a different front-tire choice. With an 11:00 a.m. kickoff, the 10-lap Tissot-Superpole Sunday "sprint" race favored Rea and his bike more than the previously strong Redding, who said he had given it full noise in the short race and still just got beat by Rea. The podium was completed by race-one retiree—and visibly un- happy about it—Michael van der Mark. His teammate Razgatlioglu was out of the short race with his own Yamaha technical issue—Lo- ris Baz had one on Friday, too. Privateer—independent we should say—Baz was fourth, Davies fifth and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad) sixth. It was the best weekend result for a rider who had qualified third in Superpole. The best HRC Honda result of the weekend? Seventh for Alvaro Bautista in race one. Razgatlioglu fell on the warmup lap for race two, got going again and was to salvage a remarkable podium for his trouble. The final race was another winning spree for Redding, but it was so different from the first hard slog to the front and then tight defense, it was like another species of racing. He went in hard and early, passing Rea on lap two and stretching out space and time as his own pace proved cumu- latively effective, and Rea found an unexpected lack of grip. The track temperatures were up to 60°C again, the same for everyone of course, but Rea had no answer when other riders passed him. Davies, starting further up after his strong Superpole race run into fifth, was to be a firm second, just over three seconds behind Redding. In third place, Razgatlioglu was again the epitome of battling qualities and getting the most out of what was under him. Rinaldi, in an amazing fourth, attributed his sudden upturn to feeling happy with his bike, not only in setup but in terms of the GoEleven Ducati team makeup. Alex Lowes, improving his race finishes in Spain from ninth to seventh to fifth, passed his teammate Rea to continue his championship challenge despite finding some real setup issues in the extreme heat of Jerez. As well as top independents like Rinaldi and Baz, Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) was a strong 11th in race one and even better in 10th in race two. In a field like the one in 2020, that is more than respect- able, even if he was 21 seconds down in the final event of the weekend. To put that in perspec- tive, however, Rea was 12 seconds back in the same race two. "Finally, it feels good to be rac- ing again and to see the check- ered flag being waved," said Ger- loff. "I was hoping to be slightly higher up in race one, there were a few guys ahead of me that I could see I was closing the gap to, but in the end, I couldn't quite catch them. I had a really strong bike though, but with the heat it makes things a lot more difficult to manage and maximize. "We collected some good data and it was great to get the first race out the way so I can focus on getting into a better rhythm. I'm happy to be inside the top 10 on Sunday, but I know I have a little bit more in me. I made a few mistakes which cost me a couple of positions. The team and I made a lot of solid progress this weekend, despite not having as much track time as we had in testing. We made some good de- cisions on the setup, I felt really confident in the Superpole Race and again in the second one." Redding won in two ways, each equally effective. "If I feel comfortable to lead and go I will lead and go. I am still learning. Every time I go out on my bike, it was the first time I had started The WorldSSP class ran two races and Andrea Locatelli won both of them.

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