Had he finished, it would have
been four Ducatis in the top five
places.
In the Superpole race,
Razgatlioglu led Bautista after
passing him early on, but came
under pressure from the Ducati
rider soon after.
Razgatlioglu got ahead of
Bautista again, with the Span
-
ish rider the only one on an SCX
rear, not the new Pirelli SCQ.
Petrucci and Lecuona crashed
together and with Lecuona
seemingly pinned underneath
his machine and Petrucci almost
immobile, they were taken to the
medical center.
The necessary red flag caused
the race to be called after seven-
and-a-bit laps, with the winner
declared as Bautista, simply
because he had reached an offi
-
cial trackside timekeeping point
ahead of Razgatlioglu, having
just re-passed him a little earlier.
The 1-2-3 was finally Bautista,
Razgatlioglu and Rinaldi, with
Bassani fourth, Rea fifth and
Alex Lowes (KRT) sixth.
For race two, Lecuona was
finally declared unfit with hip and
ankle injuries. Petrucci came
back to race in the final 21-lap
race two, shortly after looking
like he was heading to hospital,
not the circuit medical center
where scans showed he was
battered, but not broken.
Bautista's eventual push out
front in race two was untouch
-
able but there was rather too
much close contact going on
behind, as the early fight for
each corner between Toprak and
Rinaldi ended up with Rinaldi
biting off more than his front tire
could chew with six laps to go,
trying to pass Razgatlioglu into
T1 but running out of asphalt.
He clipped the back of his rival's
rear tire and Michael tumbled
fast and furiously in the gravel,
but he stood up and walked
away.
The rider Rinaldi probably
finds himself in competition with
for a factory Ducati ride in 2024,
Bassani, inherited third, and he
held it together to the flag, even
with a six-time World Champion
behind him, and took his first
podium of 2023.
VOLUME ISSUE JUNE , P33
Toprak Razgatlioglu gave
it his best at breaking up
the Ducati stranglehold,
placing second in two of the
weekend's three races.
