were occupied by Borgo’ s Panigales; Lecuona, Bulega and Surra locked in the first row and behind them, Sam Lowes, Barni Spark’ s Yari Montella and GoEleven’ s Lorenzo Baldassarri occupied the second row. The best non-Ducati qualifier was Alex Lowes on the Bimota in 7th. Both Lowes brothers had an outside chance of overtaking Montella for third spot in the championship but, with the Bimotas not adapting to the Cremona track particularly well, Alex Lowes chances of catching Montella didn’ t look good. The Bimota’ s lack of performance was underlined by Axel Bassani’ s fourth row start on the grid. As well as fighting for third overall, Sam Lowes was also in the hunt for top independent rider, and it was Montella that he’ d have to beat if he was going to land that reward. Clearly both Lowes brothers and Yari Montella had a lot to fight for and, not crashing was, as usual, a good option.
RACE ONE Montella forced himself past Bulega and Surra to be second into Turn 1 but undid that good work by crashing out before completing the first lap. He remounted only to crash again and retire on lap eight. So much for not crashing. Montella’ s early exit promoted Alberto Surra to third and, whilst he was in no danger of catching Bulega, Surra seemed to be well on his way to a maiden podium finish when he too crashed out on lap nine, elevating Sam Lowes to third. Alex Lowes had gained two easy places with Surra and Montella crashing out but couldn’ t hold off Garrett Gerloff who was in raging form coming from eighth on the grid to finish fifth behind Lecuona, Bulega, Sam Lowes and Lorenzo Baldassari. Setting aside his disappointing exit from Race One, Surra was putting on an impressive performance at Cremona and only had
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