come with a margin of safety,
despite a less-than-perfect tire
choice, he said, and even after
all the Ducati riders lost 250 revs
from the top under new technical
rules this weekend. Razgatlioglu
even reckoned he had superior
initial acceleration out of the
uphill Tosa hairpin but then the
Ducati would chime in, pulling
away on every mini-straight.
Rea actually passed Bautista
for a short time, after Bau
-
tista had experienced a terrible
wobble under acceleration, and
Rea did well to avoid him.
In the end it was a dull race
for the final few laps, a contrast
to the start filled with unknowns
and shuffles in the leading order,
exacerbated by the white-knuck
-
le nature of the roller-coaster
circuit itself.
Things got so worrying on the
temperature front that the second
full-distance race of the day was
reduced to 15 laps, not the planned
19, like the Saturday event. The
normal build up procedure to the
start was also shortened.
Bautista fell in morning
warm-up on Sunday, a prequel of
things to come.
In Sunday's Superpole race,
Locatelli once more bounced out
in front, with all the top riders on
an SCQ-A development rear tire
option.
It was a great race compared
to the opener, with Locatelli
out front again, but eventually
hunted down by Bautista and
Razgatlioglu.
The two leading competitors
this year went at it as hard as
the heat and grip allowed, with
Razgatlioglu sliding under power
several times, especially when
an attempted pass on Locatelli
failed and he lost ground to the
front positions.
Razgatlioglu would pass
Locatelli into the Variante Alta,
but he saved his most extrava
-
gant move for Bautista, passing
around the outside at the fast
Piratella lefthander.
It was his third win of the year,
but all before had been in the
Sprint race.
Could he do it again for a first
long race victory this year, even if it
was a short version of a long race?
Yes he could, but maybe only
because Bautista got a bit of
-
fline and hit the inside white line
at the first chicane on lap one,
falling without injury (not for the
first time this weekend) but be
-
ing unable to restart.
The shock all around was
palpable, but the other top rid
-
ers still had to capitalize on the
error.
Razgatlioglu blasted on from
his leading position but on lap
eight Axel Bassani made a
move, passing to lead for four
laps. Razgatlioglu just waited
for Bassani to show the signs of
tire wear, went past and took his
VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P35
Razgatlioglu and
Bautista hard at it in
the Superpole race
that went the way of
the Turk.
