Lorenzo Baldasarri gets his focus on
and Baustista would have been a concern to the Yamaha camp . And so to the final race of the weekend . Guess what ? Bautista from Rinaldi . Again . But this time it was Toprak ’ s teammate , Andrea Locatelli , also looking like he ’ s levelled up in the off-season , who came home third . Razgatlioglu had to retire after he was bought down by Alex Lowes , who lost the front end going into Miller Corner , and Rea was a distant eighth .
LESSONS FOR THE SEASON So what did we learn from the weekend ? Bautista isn ’ t quite in a class of his own and not every track will favour him the way that PI does , but he clearly wants to defend his title and he ’ s going to be hard to beat . Coming out of Round One , he already has a lead of twenty-eight points - more than a race win - over Locatelli ( much improved , especially under brakes ) in second . Rinaldi , sitting just a point behind Locatelli and on the same score as Rea , is looking like the perfect wingman to Bautista and can be expected to score points for the team on a
regular basis . The Yamaha team isn ’ t far behind , but it is behind , neither Toprak or Locatelli could really mount a challenge on the Ducatis at PI , but Mandalika , which hosts Round Two of the championship , might be more to their liking . Kawasaki have similar challenges . The bike is quick , Rea is riding well , but the Ducati is quicker and Bautista is riding better . Kawasaki number two rider Alex Lowes came away from the weekend with a grand total of six points and sits in fifteenth place . Definitely a weekend to forget . Honda was very much a mixed bag , Iker Lecuona was a consistent top ten finisher , and came away from the weekend sitting seventh in the championship , but Xavi Vierge couldn ’ t match his teammate ’ s performances and struggled all weekend . Factory BMW riders Scott Redding and Michael Van der Mark and satellite BMW Bonovo Racing riders Garrett Gerloff and Loris Baz would probably like to move right along from Round One as quickly as possible . Redding was the best of the BMW men , but twelfth place and ten points is not going to be a great feeling .
28 KIWI RIDER