Bautista, Razgatlioglu Shine
at Misano WorldSBK
I
t is maybe impossible to expect
to replicate the sheer last-lap
dramas of the previous round in
Portugal every weekend, but we
still had many sharp intakes of
breath at Misano—and one big
exhalation of relief from the boys
and girls in blue.
The big three championship
riders were at it again in terms
of most podiums scored, but
another rider got the silverware
this weekend.
The winner of the intense
Superpole competition for grid
places, at a track where lots of
people have come to grief over
the years into the first right/left
kink complex, was Alvaro Bau-
tista (Aruba Ducati).
His new all-time Superbike
best of 1:33.328 delivered his
first pole position since he last
rode for Ducati in 2019.
Toprak Razgatlioglu was
second in Superpole on his Pata
Yamaha, with Jonathan Rea third
on his KRT Kawasaki. The top
trio were separated by 0.190 sec-
onds, so race one was expected
to be a close affair.
Having tested at Misano earlier in
the year, Bautista and his teammate
Michael Ruben Rinaldi went with
one of the three available SCX tires
in race one at Misano, one of the
development options. It seemed to
be the best one for the conditions,
as Bautista was to come home
with a clear winning margin of five
seconds over Rea, on the other
new development rear SCX.
The big three were at their
front running tricks again, but
once more, Razgatlioglu wasn't
quite at the movies with his pace,
unlike the other two.
Suddenly, shockingly, when he
was around a second back from
Bautista and Rea, he pulled off
the circuit on the exit of the final
IN
THE
WIND
P44
Alvaro Bautista stretched out his
points lead with a double victory
at Misano.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
