Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1473647
like maybe he would gap Rea, opened up hopes of a closer championship fightback for not only Rea, but also for Razgatlio- glu. The final podium place in race one went to Alex Lowes, pushing on well at his home round for his first 2022 top-three finish. On better-conserved tires and with a more refined setup for the track conditions, Lowes passed the ever-improving Scott Redding and BMW Motorrad combo in the final laps. Fourth for Redding was still real progress. On Sunday morning, the now traditional Tissot Superpole race took place on time and to sched- ule over 10 laps, and it was won by Razgatlioglu, who repeated his early race-one disappearing act and held off Rea by a second at the flag. Toprak set a new lap record, on an SCQ tire, with a 1:26.767. The bigger story was going on behind, as Redding was able to forget all about his long race-tire woes on Saturday and go all out to take his first podium in BMW colors. It is exactly what the champi- onship needed, as now all five manufacturers have stood on the podium steps at least once in 2022, a prospect that seemed remote after such a tough first round at Aragon in April. Bautista, one of the few not running a rear SCQ tire in the Superpole race, passed Lowes on the final lap for fourth, mitigat- ing the damage of his champion- ship rivals' stronger pace ahead of him. A metaphoric drum roll was heard at the start of the final 23-lap second race. Would Razgatlioglu, a rejuvenated rider since his team made those set- up changes, complete his much- anticipated first-time triple? The emphatic answer was yes, but he had Rea shadowing and harrying him for half the race distance. Bautista was not so far behind either, so it looked like a great final few corners. Rea's following tactic worked well but in 86-degree heat, his brakes were starting to fade as he spent so much time in the slipstream of the tall Toprak, losing any cooling breeze even though his bike was running scoops on the brake calipers. He almost hit Razgatlioglu more than once, so he eased off a bit and that was that as Razgatlioglu eased away to win his personally historic and satisfying triple. Rea got passed by Bautista for second, with the Ducati rider 0.6 seconds per lap faster than Rea before he made his overtake. Rea was happy enough in third for the championship-points totals, less so as he just wanted to win a race at a track that he has had a lot of success at in the past. The neutrals may have wanted Rea to finish ahead of Bautista in the final race, but that was a sideshow. The showman that is Toprak was so happy to win three races in one weekend that he rode an electric scooter into the ground floor Media Center and then did little circles in the area reserved for the Dorna video interviews! Fellow Yamaha rider Garrett Gerloff had another tough week- end, taking home 7-10-11 finishes. "The temperatures today were really high, but we learned some things," Gerloff said after race two. "We tried our best to make VOLUME 59 ISSUE 29 JULY 19, 2022 P39 Jonathan Rea tried all he knew but had no answer for Toprak.