VOLUME 57 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 11, 2020 P33
and tricky Portimao hills seemed
to blunt the previous weekend's
Ducati domination.
Fourth was the ever matur-
ing new KRT rider Alex Lowes,
learning his Kawasaki as he went,
because he had not tested at this
venue in the winter. He slowed up
from a front-row start, then came
back strong.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team
GoEleven Ducati) was top Ducati
rider in fifth, Loris Baz (Ten Kate
Racing Yamaha) a lurid sixth, and
to everyone's surprise Scott Red-
ding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
was only seventh after his Jerez
double knockings.
There was a nasty incident at
the end of Saturday when Sandro
Cortese (Outdo Kawasaki PTR)
smacked into a trackside bar-
rier and afterwards Sandro went
through a successful operation
locally with no neurological is-
sues evident, thankfully.
For Rea another front-running
win was his usual polished work
in the Tissot-Superpole race,
with early contender Razgatlioglu
eventually three seconds back.
In third was Ten Kate Yamaha's
Loris Baz. It was his first podium
on the R1.
Lowes was again held off the
podium for fourth place, but he
was also comfortably ahead of
Redding in the final sprint race re-
sults, with the eighth-place Ducati
qualifier fifth. He was then just one
championship point ahead of Rea.
Into the second and final long
race of the weekend, Rea was
again looking good, even after
Redding quickly passed the
tough Razgatlioglu for second,
but Rea was just too far ahead. A
final gap of 4.360 seconds over
Redding does not illustrate how
hard the Ducati rider wanted to
get ahead of Rea, but he ended
up with his own ominous Pata
Yamaha shadow for the last part
of the race—Michael van der
Mark (VDM). With the two riders
on vastly different lines as their
very different bikes had strong
and weak sections, everybody
waited for the Yamaha to make a
move.
With maybe three yards of dif-
ferent approaches in line to the fi-
nal fast corners at times, Redding
and VDM stayed in that order as
one defended at pace and the
other probed for weaknesses that
were not really offered up.
But out in front Rea was al-
ready celebrating his 93rd career
race win.
Friday and Saturday were hard
for Chaz Davies, but in race two
he was inspired on a finally good
setup for his individualistic needs,
and with no electronics issues
like on Saturday, finished fourth.
Lowes fell from a potential
podium placing.
A glimmer of light on the oth-
erwise still-bleak Honda horizon
came for Alvaro Bautista (HRC
Honda), as he recorded a fifth-
place finish, equaling a best
Honda finish of the year. He was
over 10 seconds back from Rea.
On a good Yamaha track, the
GRT riders were on relatively
strong form, with rookie American
Garrett Gerloff 14th, 10th and 11th.
In the championship fight,
which it really now is, Rea
has 136 points, Redding 132,
Razgatlioglu 103, Lowes 91 and
van der Mark 82.
The next rounds are at Motor-
land Aragon with back-to-back
events at the same venue on
consecutive weekends.
Toprak Razagtlioglu
finished second to Rea
in race one.
