Kiwi Rider March Vol.1 2023 | Page 34

Happy Ducati people
Rea on grid

STOP PRESS

The Mandalika circuit in Indonesia hosted WorldSBK Round Two just as we were wrapping up this issue of Kiwi Rider . Toprak Razgatlioglu took pole but Alvaro Bautista was too strong in the two full length races taking maximum points in both . His perfect record was marred somewhat by a crash in the Tissot Superpole sprint race but , despite this , he maintains a thirty seven-point lead over his closest rival , Toprak , who won the sprint race and took second in both full length races to move ahead of teammate Andrea Locatelli on the points ladder . Jonathan Rea had a poor weekend by his standards and now sits back in sixth place in the championship nearly seventy points behind Bautista . Xavi Vierge scored his first podium in Race Two , which , like the Tissot Superpole , was red-flagged and rerun over a shorter distance . Round Three kicks off the European rounds with Assen in The Netherlands , but we ’ re going to have to wait until late April for that one .
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