MONTELLA Montella profited in a big way from Bassani’ s slip up in Race Two, as he’ d probably resigned himself to finishing in 4th until the Bimota went down. Bassani’ s mistake gave Montella his third podium of the weekend, a return to form at a time when most of his immediate challengers were faltering. With Sam Lowes having a weekend to forget, and Alex Lowes not matching Montella’ s performance, it was Montella who jumped back to 3rd in the championship. If he can lay off his habit of crashing when in strong points scoring positions, something that’ s dogged him at more than one round this year, he’ ll position himself as the most likely to finish 3rd overall and best independent rider. Leaving Misano, the gap between Montella and Alex Lowes is only 14 points, so he’ ll need to limit the number of mistakes he makes if he wants to defend that lead.
BAUTISTA Montella’ s teammate Bautista had amazed everyone with an early return from his Aragon injury but he wasn’ t quite able to repeat that performance at Misano. Qualifying in 17th, he showed great resolve to fight his way back to 9th in Race One and, whilst his usual late race improvement plays well in the longer fulllength races, it doesn’ t translate so well in the ten-lap Sprints. Starting again from 17th, he was only able to work his way up to 12th and his Sprint result meant no improvement to his grid position for Race Two. Starting from 17th for the third time, he was involved in a melee on Lap One which put him down and out of the race. You’ ve got to admire the effort Bautista is putting in despite still not being fully fit and seven points from the weekend don’ t really reflect his hard work. He sits 8th in the championship coming away from Misano, and,
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