Magny-Cours, Jonathan Rea’s historic fiefdom and track congenial to Toprak Razgatlioglu, now has a new owner: it is Alvaro Bautista, dominator of Race 1 and author of his first triumph as a Ducati rider on the French track. The world leader thus brings his advantage in the standings to +56 points over Jonathan Rea and 58 points over Toprak Razgatlioglu.
The Spaniard increases the gap taking advantage of the real twist of Race 1, which occurs after a few laps: Jonathan Rea loses control of his Kawasaki at the last chicane when he was in second position and ends up in the gravel. He resumes the track, but his ZX-10RR is damaged and is even doubled. After one lap, it is Toprak Razgatlioglu’s turn; the reigning champion brakes too hard at Turn 15 and goes into gravel. He gets back on track and starts his comeback up to 11th position, still managing to collect 5 points, precious for the classification.
But it wasn’t all easy for Alvaro Bautista, who in the early stages of the race was chasing a reinvigorated Scott Redding. The Briton, who started from the front row, tried to set the pace of the race, keeping pace with the Ducati rider for several laps. In the final, however, he collapsed, thus settling for second position, just over four seconds behind the winner. The BMW standard bearer is showing great growth in the team, also helped by the performance of Loris Baz, fighting for the podium until he crashed at Adelaide.
Take advantage of the fall of the French Axel Bassani, who manages to remain in the leading positions for the whole race and grabs the podium. The Motocorsa team rider flies in the race and, despite crossing the line almost seven seconds behind his team mate, he is third and wins his first Superbike podium in a dry race. Alex Lowes, first representative of the Kawasaki riders, stops in fourth position. The Brit precedes Garrett Gerloff, sixth and in turn first of the Yamaha riders. The American, however, fails to be the best independent at the checkered flag, because he is preceded by Bassani.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi does not go beyond the sixth position, who appears in good shape in the early stages of the race but then relegates in the final laps. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider remains ahead of Philipp Oettl, who was also backward as the laps went by and eighth at the finish. Between the two is Andrea Locatelli, seventh and in great difficulty this season. Closing the top 10 Iker Lecuona and Lucas Mahias, ninth and tenth respectively.
#SBK #MagnyCours #Race #Bautista #triumphs #defeat #Rea #Toprak