RACE ONE The first race was a procession and one of the least exciting of the season. Bulega and Lecuona took first and second in their customary emphatic style with Lecuona unable to put Bulega under real pressure at any point. Sam Lowes kept out of trouble and other people’ s crashes to claim a third-place finish, although running off the track on the last lap might’ ve been a sign that his focus was wandering a little because of the monotony of racing with himself. Bimota’ s Alex Lowes was never much troubled in fourth, clearly in-tune with the bike after changes the team made after the recent Portimao official test. With 16, yes, 16 seconds covering first to fourth, you had to look to the mid-pack for anything vaguely exciting. Superbike Advocate’ s Tommy Bridewell rode well to beat Baldassarri to fifth spot. Bridewell is quickly establishing himself as another of the fast midfield riders ready to mix it for top ten
finishes; beating Balda is no mean feat. In the Barni Spark camp, Montella seemed to have lost some of his spark and could only bring it home 7th and Bautista’ s return to racing didn’ t last long as he had to withdraw on lap four because of front brake issues. Bimota’ s Axel Bassani, out of contract at the end of the season, needs the team to see him as the man to fill the seat again in 2027 and his form at Aragón was the best showing he’ s made since Round One. Eighth and holding Kawasaki’ s Garrett Gerloff at bay in Race One was an efficient result, Bassani looked more confident on the bike than he has in recent rounds. Gerloff has clicked with recent geometry changes the team has made which have moulded the ZX-10R more to his riding-style rather than forcing him to adapt to a setup that wasn’ t really working for him. His 9th-place finish wasn’ t quite up to the level of his heroics at Autodrom Most and he just could not get past Bassani. But top ten is still top ten.
KIWI RIDER 85