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despite Rea's final scare and his Ducati's power advantage. Rea won by 0.194 seconds, but it was his second strong victory of the day, coming out on top on Sunday in rider-to-rider fights with his two main rivals. Locatelli was fifth, Lecuona sixth after running the whole race with no front fender, which had fallen off on the sighting lap. Garrett Gerloff, GRT Yamaha WorldSBK, crashed out of the weekend's racing. The American rider topped FP1 and was in the top three going into Saturday be- fore a big highside at turn 13 sent him tumbling through the gravel. He suffered a deep wound on his left knee. Gerloff was on a run of laps in FP3 when the crash happened and although he was able to get to his feet, further assessments at the medical center ruled the Texan out for the rest of the weekend. "It's such a shame to have been ruled out after the crash I had this morning [Saturday] in FP3," he said. "The only positive note is that I haven't broken anything. We were fast on Friday, and I had a good feel- ing with the bike. We could have done something really good here in Estoril. I'm really sorry for the team, but now I will just focus on getting better and better to come back stronger." In the championship stand- ings Bautista has 161 points, Rea 144 and Razgatlioglu 109. Rea has five race wins, Bautista four. Razgatliglu? None… not yet at least. Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Yamaha) took pole in the WorldSSP class (at a record pace of 1:39.046), to nobody's surprise as his dominance grows each week in an otherwise en- tirely open series this year. In race one, after three other riders had a go at leading—Jules Cluzel (GMT94) and Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti) and Glenn van Straalen (EAB Yamaha)—the Swiss went through to take the win by over three seconds from another top Yamaha rider Loren- zo Baldassarri (Evan Bros). Third place in the opener went to Nicolo Bulega (Aruba Ducati), on a weekend where the Ducatis got three percent extra throttle opening to rebalance things a little against the 600cc fours. But it was in general not a happy first Estoril Raceday day for the Next Generation bikes, with Oncu finishing fourth and only the fifth-placed Federico Caricasulo (Althea Ducati) reaching close to the front on another "new" model. The only two non-600cc fours inside the top 11 places were those two Ducatis. It was very different in WorldSSP race two, when the slightly iffy track conditions and the odd gossamer thin droplets of rain showed up on occasion. Passes were flying in every cor- ner with vast swings of fortune, front to back and side-to-side. Eventually Aegerter made the race his own with superior pace late on, but an old WorldSSP face, Kyle Smith (VFT Yamaha), put himself into second place, helped by the tricky conditions he can manage so well. He had been 17th on the grid. It was a very tough race for Baldassarri who had to attack and defend all at once, only just keeping Kawasaki Puccetti Racing's Yari Montella behind at the flag. He was third but sec- ond would have been better with Aegerter way out in front. Oncu, another leader for a time, was fifth, but all the fighting for the podium places included the suddenly competitive Oli Bayliss, who would fight his way to sixth, in confident fashion. The leading groups was a concertina of riders all through. In the post Estoril points, Ae- gerter has 145, Baldassarri 101, Race Two faller Bulega 72. Gordon Ritchie RACE 1 1. Alvaro Bautista (Duc) 2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yam) 3. Jonathan Rea (Kzw) 4. Andrea Locatelli (Yam) 5. Xavi Vierge (Hon) SUPERPOLE RACE 1. Jonathan Rea (Kaw) 2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yam) 3. Alvaro Bautista (Duc) 4. Iker Lecuona (Hon) 5. Andrea Locatelli (Yam) RACE 2 1. Jonathan Rea (Kaw) 2. Alvaro Bautista (Duc) 3. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yam) 4. Alex Lowes (Kaw) 5. Andrea Locatelli (Yam) VOLUME 59 ISSUE 21 MAY 24, 2022 P45