VOLUME 58 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 24, 2021 P43
The race-one lead was Rea's
for a time, after passing fast-
starting Redding into turn four,
but Redding simply had greater
race pace to ease out a gap
that he would control to the end
ahead of Rea and Razgatlioglu—
this year's big hitters.
In fourth on Saturday, Andrea
Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with
Brixx) looked every inch the top
Superbike competitor again. In
fifth place, Alex Lowes (Kawa-
saki Racing Team), still carrying
a niggling shoulder injury, was
16 seconds from Redding. And
the BMW of Tom Sykes, in sixth,
was over 20 seconds off a win.
In the Superpole Race, Red-
ding was also the winner but the
cut and thrust was epic at times,
with Rea putting in hard passes
at a circuit that is generally dif-
ficult to overtake at.
The first few laps were a
melee, but after a short watch-
ing brief, Redding got going and
scored only his second WorldS-
BK Superpole race win.
In race two, the finale to the
weekend, the fights and frustra-
tions came out again, but this
time it was Razgatlioglu who
took the initiative most strongly.
It took a while for the competi-
tion to get going at all in race
two, as Kohta Nozane had tech-
nical issues with his bike on the
grid, and the race was delayed
for a few minutes.
Cut to 22 laps, the early ac-
tion was frantic again, but the
race settled down as a chase
between Razgatlioglu and Rea,
one which Rea lost with a near
crash which allowed Redding
through.
But Redding could not take
his triple win, and the Turkish
rider was the one who ended his
Sunday on top.
It was an important fall of the
podium dice as with Rea third,
not second, even as the three
leaders crossed the line sepa-
rated by just 3.715 seconds.
Razgatlioglu joined Rea as
the shared points leader after
Navarra, although with eight race
wins so far, Rea is sort-of ahead,
Scott Redding his formally
hit his stride in WorldSBK
with three wins from the last
four races.
