drama for winner Bautista, as he
made short work of early leader
Rea, who slipped back to fourth,
and Locatelli, who kept his team-
mate Razgatlioglu behind him
for almost the entire race.
Razgatlioglu later said that he
knew that Bautista was uncatch-
able once he went away and that
the real threat was most likely
Rinaldi, once more coming for
-
ward at pace. So, Razgatlioglu
had to save his tires.
Locatelli would describe race
two as one of his best-ever
races, but it would not go all the
way for him, as a holed oil cooler
would eventually send him back
to the paddock early. A small
amount of smoke from Locatel
-
li's bike put Rinaldi in cautious
mode, allowing Razgatlioglu to
close in and eventually pass him
after Locatelli had pulled off.
The top five was Bautista,
Razgatlioglu, Rinaldi, Rea and
Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing
Ducati).
Garrett Gerloff struggled to
find pace all weekend, squeak-
ing into the top 10 in all three
races, going 8-9-10. "In the end,
we were in the top 10, which was
good, but we always want more,"
the Bonovo Action BMW Team
rider said. "For sure, I feel that
we had a little bit more to offer
this weekend. But I have given
my best, and this was all we
could do, unfortunately."
Bautista is now 47 points
ahead of Razgatlioglu in the
championship.
In WorldSSP, Nicolo Bulega
(Aruba.it Racing Ducati) won
both races to extend his lead in
the championship. The Italian
took the race-one win with more
than three seconds to spare over
Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta
Reparto Corse), who was a sec
-
ond clear of Yari Montella (Barni
Spark Racing Team Ducati).
Bulega was two seconds clear
of Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Rac-
ing Yamaha) in race two, while
Federico Caricasulo (Althea Rac-
ing Team Ducati) was third, less
than a second behind Manzi.
With three rounds left, Bulega
holds a commanding lead in the
championship over runner-up
Manzi, 408-323. Schroetter is
third with 267 points.
Gordon Ritchie
WORLDSBK
RACE 1
1. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Duc)
2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yam)
3. Jonathan Rea (Kaw)
VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P37
