VOLUME 58 ISSUE 30 JULY 27, 2021 P27
In the Superpole race, Rea
scrapped at the start with Mi-
chael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it
Racing – Ducati) and Razgatlio-
glu but he did his usual disap-
pearing act in the second half of
the race and won by almost three
seconds.
Initially Rea's win was from
Razgatlioglu and the pugilistic
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha
WorldSBK Team)—on the road
as it were—but the final podium
order changed to Rea-Rinaldi-
Razgatlioglu.
Both factory Yamaha riders
were docked one position for
straying—marginally as it ap-
peared—onto the track limit's
green paint on the absolute final
apex, forcing Locatelli off his
first WorldSBK podium. And with
Razgatlioglu third, Rinaldi was
promoted to second.
Scott Redding, a potential
podium man himself dropped off
the final pace for fifth place on
his official Ducati.
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing
Team) placed sixth after a slow
race-one crash.
Sykes got the better of Gerloff,
for whom Assen was about to get
a whole lot more interesting in
race two, and not in a good way.
Now on the third row after his
Superpole race results, Gerloff
made a good start and swept
over to dive for the inside line into
turn one.
Razgatlioglu was already
up front on the other side and
crossing to a late apex when
Gerloff's back wheel appeared to
shimmy, and as they both leaned
in, he clattered into the side of
Razgatlioglu, knocking him off,
running wide and losing places.
In short, it was an absolute
disaster for Yamaha's hopes of
taking their first WorldSBK title
since Ben Spies in 2009.
Gerloff knew he'd made a seri-
ous error of judgement, and said
so thusly, "I'm devastated, and
I can only apologize to Toprak
and to Yamaha for today. I got a
good start from the third row of
the grid, I felt the contact in turn
one, but I didn't realize it was
Toprak until I looked back. I'm
sorry for him, as he paid a big
price for my mistake, but also for
Yamaha, who have worked tire-
lessly to mount a championship
challenge. I can only apologize
to both, although I am well aware
that this won't change the out-
come."
"Garrett made a bad mistake,
I am not sure why he tried to do
hard braking like this in the first
corner," said Razgatlioglu. "I was
surprised, and I only feel angry
because we lost so many points
Garrett Gerloff (31) made a grave error, clattering into championship contender
Topak Razgatlioglu and sending the Turk into the gravel trap.
