challenging weekend, poor qualifying leaving him too much to do in the races, although he showed some pace, bouncing back to finish sixth in Race Two. It’ s a real credit to Bimota’ s Bassani that he converted his poor qualifying( 17th) into a ninth in Race One and a repeat in the Sprint Race was on the cards, but it wasn’ t to be. A small mistake put him back to 11th, out of the target top nine so, it was back to 17th on the grid for the Race Two start. Again, he worked his way up to a creditable ninth, but, clearly, if he’ d qualified better, top five finishes could have been on the cards for him. Garrett Gerloff, on the lone Puccetti Kawa, had an up and down weekend. Poor qualifying put him 12th on the grid which he converted to a ninth-place finish in Race One but thirteenth in the Sprint Race meant he had to do it all again in Race Two and he worked hard for this seventh-place finish in the final race of the weekend. Alberto Surra, missing the Donington Park round through injury, continued to impress on the MotoCorsa Ducati. He’ s still a tough fighter but, whilst he was tough and wild early in the season, he’ s got more control now and has adapted his riding so he doesn’ t burn his tyres out early in the race. He would’ ve been a little disappointed with eighth in Race One after qualifying in fifth but fourth in the Sprint Race and fifth in Race Two would’ ve been more satisfying. Balda on the GoEleven bike could be forgiven for being distracted by the talk of Rins potentially joining the team and unseating him but, if he is distracted, he didn’ t let it affect him, scoring in all three races, with a fourth in
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