Rea, Axel Bassani (Ducati) and
Iker Lecuona (HRC) capitalized
in fine style, with the Honda rider
fast at the beginning and fast
enough to score well at the end
of 21 tense laps.
Bautista went from fourth
to third on lap four, by which
time Bassani was in the lead,
with Rea trying to get past his
high-speed mobile obstacle ap-
proach.
Bautista would be the one to
finally take Bassani's lead, not
Rea, and from lap eight to lap 21
Bautista gave another controlled
front-running masterclass of
pace, almost always inside the
1:37 second.
On lap 19, Rea had shown
enough prowess to go into
second, and he eased off on
the final lap to guarantee the 20
points, with Bassani 1.5 seconds
adrift in a privateer podium slot.
Lecuona earned his fourth-
place finish, complete with a
(small) stage one of Honda's re-
cent greater chassis adjustment
freedoms under an early version
of the 2023 Superconcessions
rules.
Top BMW finisher was Scott
Redding in seventh place.
With no Razgatlioglu fighting
Bautista, the main action came
from the young upstart Bassani
and the old master Rea chewing
away at each other, and occa-
sionally touching.
No overall Ducati "team" order
or favors asked so far, but Bas-
sani's race was one of almost
complete defense.
Razgatlioglu lined up for
the Superpole race from pole
position and took the early lead,
determined to make up for his
Saturday fall. He fought for the
early lead with Rea initially, with
Bautista third.
The true 2022 trio of factory
powers pulled a gap on the rest
with Rinaldi, Alex Lowes (Kawa-
saki Racing Team) and Lecuona
creating their own off-podium
fight.
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 25, 2022 P37
The top four blast off for the Superpole race
with Toprak Razgatlioglu leading the charge.