very much over the limit.
Razgatlioglu had taken the
holeshot from pole man Rea,
but Locatelli had taken too many
liberties again, passing Rinaldi
into the second part of the overly
tight first chicane. Block passed
and thus immediately down the
order, Rinaldi would vent his
spleen in the post-race press
conferences.
Rea had touched his front
tire on Razgatlioglu's rear, as he
said the Turkish rider had been
unexpected slow in corner entry.
Locatelli ran off track completely
early in the race and came back
on to scatter a few riders arriving
on the scene.
Razgatlioglu then secured a
new lap record with a 1:31.936
on lap three, despite he and
Rea fighting with each other and
seemingly slowing each other up.
It was a busy first few laps.
Bautista took a chance when
the drops of rain hit the visors
and passed them both, markedly
on power advantage each time.
Scott Redding (BMW Motor-
rad) piled on the coals, as he
said he had nothing to lose, and
would pass first Razgatlioglu and
then Rea for second place.
Rea was having brake issues,
which allowed Razgatlioglu's
hard-braking style to see him
overtake Rea.
With Bautista just too far
ahead of Redding, and setting
a high 1:31, three laps from the
end on his SC0 tire, the Ducati
rider would win and take Ducati's
1000th WorldSBK podium.
Behind, Redding's seemingly
sure-fire second was interrupted
by a hard pass from Toprak into
a fast right with less runoff than
other places.
Redding had to go wide,
Razgatlioglu went into second—
and then Rea took his chance,
trying to get past Redding and
into the podium places.
Redding and he rode side by
side for a couple of corners, but
it was the BMW rider who would
come out on top for another full
credit podium.
Bautista, Razgatlioglu, Red-
ding, Rea and privateer Bassani
were the final race-one top five.
Allowed to run the SCX rears
in the Superpole race, most of
the riders did, but not quite all.
Razgatlioglu and Rea fought
it out up front again, this time all
the way for the win. Razgatlioglu
set a new lap record of 1:31.180
in the Superpole race, on lap
two.
Rea passed Raz into the first
corner on the final lap, even while
being squeezed toward the pit wall
on entry. Razgatlioglu re-passed
inside on the fast turn four.
On the fast right of turn 15,
Rea tried to go up the inside of
Razgatlioglu but his dangling
leg was in the way. Razgatlioglu
said there was contact, Rea had
to run wide after passing, and
went off track. He rejoined back
in second place, with Razgatlio-
glu the victor and Bautista third.
Rinaldi was fourth.
The final race saw Rea chas-
ing the leading duo of Razgatlio-
glu and Bautista.
Bautista took the lead then ran
on immediately into T1, followed
by Redding, who held on to
fourth.
Razgatlioglu was passed by
Rea, and we then had a genuine
"Big Three" fight. Three abreast
braking into T1 was a sight to
see, but just when it looked like
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 2, 2022 P37
Razgatlioglu
capped off the
weekend of
racing with the
win in race two.
