MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

A red flag ended up deciding the Superpole race at Misano, as a crash by Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci at Turn 8 ended the race prematurely, leaving Alvaro Bautista the winner of a hard battle between the Aruba.it Ducati rider and Pata Yamaha's Toprak Razgatlioglu.

After his poor start yesterday, Razgatlioglu was much stronger off the line in the sprint race, the Turkish rider exiting the first chicane on the tail of Bautista, and able to get past through Turns 4 and 5.

Behind them, Danilo Petrucci bumped Dominique Aegerter, which brought both Aegerter and GRT teammate Remy Gardner down, Gardner being taken to the Medical Center for a checkup. Petrucci would be handed a Long Lap Penalty for the incident, which dropped him out of sixth and put him right in the middle of the pack, where his race ended with that crash with Iker Lecuona. Lecuona has also been taken to the Medical Center for further examination.

At the front, Razgatlioglu and Bautista were able to open a gap when Axel Bassani put a very hard move on Michael Ruben Rinaldi to take third, which Rinaldi repaid in kind at Turn 14. That left Bautista and Razgatlioglu to use their contrasting strengths to fight for the lead. Razgatlioglu used his lateness on the brakes to get past through the double right of Turns 4 and 5, while Bautista used his exceptional drive out of Turn 10 to rocket past Razgatlioglu through Turn 11, Curvone.

The Yamaha and Ducati swapped positions four times in the space of 7 laps, and the battle was far from decided when the red flag came out. But fortune smiled on Bautista, the reigning world champion taking victory for leading at the end of lap 7, when the race was red flagged.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi completed the podium once again, the Aruba.it Ducati rider closing in on the leaders in the final laps as Bautista and Razgatlioglu fought it out, but the red flag put a stop to his charge. Axel Bassani ended the race in fourth, ahead of the Kawasakis of Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes.

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