Tetsuta Nagashima
Miguel Oliveira Tarran Mackenzie
Sam on the Marc VDS Ducati both ran well in Race One and in Tissot Superpole but both crashed out of Race Two whilst in position to score good points. The conditions were treacherous, but a lot of experienced riders wasted good positions in that second race. Vierge on the factory Yamaha had a shocker. Crashes in Races One and Two and a DNS in Tissot Superpole left his scorecard at zero at the end of the weekend. That is the way things roll sometimes. Given how badly the bike came apart after that Race One accident, he’ s probably just happy to still be able to get back out on track at all and not to have spent a long time in the medical centre. Gerloff was solid if unspectacular, as was Lecuona. Locatelli only really featured in the wet Race Two, with a fifth-place finish whilst not making a mark in the dry races, finishing both outside the top ten. Gardner, hampered by a shoulder injury, didn’ t really make a mark on the weekend at all and neither did teammate Manzi. Little, if anything, was expected of Surra on the Motocorsa Racing Ducati but a top ten finish in Race One and a couple of twelfth places in the other two races wasn’ t a bad start to the season at all.
THE CURTAIN DROPS Come the end of the weekend, it was Bulega’ s dominance and Bassani’ s consistency that put them at the head of the points table, with the Aruba. it man leading on sixty-two points and the Bimota rider on forty-two. Yari Montella managed to hold on to third, with twenty-six points, despite his Race Two DNF. The surprise package of Baldassarri on the GoEleven Ducati placed in fourth, just one point behind Montella with Alvaro Bautista and Iker Lecuona on equal nineteen points in fifth and sixth.
KIWI RIDER 47