The first few laps saw the
usual hard overtakes and scram-
bling for position up front, with
Aegerter and Lowes the leaders,
also Rea, Bautista and Razgatli-
glu. A major engine failure for
Aegerter's Yamaha saw a vast
plume of smoke coming from
the exhaust. Two riders behind,
Iker Lecuona and Loris Baz
ran off as a result, with Lecu
-
ona crashing, being medically
checked and then fit for what
was an eight-lap restart.
On the restart, with two laps
gone, Razgatlioglu passed Low
-
es into T1, but with not enough
space left for Lowes to make
it into the turn, he just touched
Toprak's rear tire and fell. His
helmet contacted Razgatlioglu's
rear tire, ripping off his visor
and flicking his head backward
violently, causing him to put his
hand to his head immediately.
He walked away but had to have
stitches on his eyelids and was
declared unfit.
Bautista put in one of his typi
-
cal front-running performances
to win the race, with Aegerter a
career-best first podium scorer
in second place (despite his first
red-flagged race start blow-up).
Rea took a final Kawasaki day
podium ahead of Razgatlioglu.
Despite having two crashes,
in race one and the "real" Super
-
pole race, Bassani earned the
right to wear the Independent
Riders' crown again, while the
GRT Yamaha team won the Inde
-
pendent Team's award. A fitting
one after the recent passing of
team owner Mirko Giansanti.
At the very start of the final
race Rea, running a very different
setup at the behest of his crew
chief Pere Riba, was way out in
front, pushing on to take a lead
that was clear and confident.
He entered the second corner
a bit too fast and squirrelly, but
instead of easing up a tad but
then losing some time, he con
-
tinued the commitment all the
way to a crash as he tucked the
front on lap five.
As he said, he didn't end his
Kawasaki years without a fight,
but it was ultimately 17th place
for him and a public goodbye
from the team in the pitlane, not
the winners' circle.
The race he left behind up
front was just spectacular, with
VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P33
Toprak Razgatlioglu leads Bautista and
Dominique Aegerter in race two.
