fourth place finishes in Races One and Two and a sixth place in the Tissot Superpole Sprint Race. Had he shown that form and racecraft more often this season, perhaps he’ d have some offers to consider for 2027 but, at this stage it seems a return is unlikely. If Jerez was his final dance, he danced magnificently.
MONTELLA Bautista’ s teammate Yari Montella, although not entirely immune from mistakes, has been the standout for Barni Spark Racing this season, sealing the best independent rider title at the last round in Estoril. He was looking to make sure he kept his hands on third overall at Jerez with Bimota’ s Alex Lowes in with a slim chance of overhauling Montella’ s lead. Montella only needed a handful of points to secure third overall in the championship and had no need to chase the top three. Fourth in qualifying, fifth behind Bautista in both fulllength races and fourth in the Sprint Race were just what was needed, and was enough to secure third place overall. It also meant Barni Spark were runners up to Aruba. it Ducati in the teams championship.
OUTSTANDING LOWES The other outstanding performer of the weekend was Marc VDS Ducati’ s Sam Lowes, coming from a series of rounds that had ended any chance he might have had of wrestling the independent rider’ s title from Montella. Lowes planted himself in second place on the grid for Race One and gapped Lecuona by nearly three seconds to hold on to that second place at the finish. Not quite able to hold a resurgent Lecuona at bay on Sunday, Lowes kept his head down and scored two third place finishes, his Race Two finish being particularly impressive, hunting Bautista down late in the Race as light rain threatened to turn it into a lottery.
KIWI RIDER 29