MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The weather finally decided to be warm, with 20ºC air and a cool 29ºC track. The twenty-one lap race would be contested with riders using similar tyre choices after missing a lot of the dry track time.

Toprak Razgatlioglu hit turn one first, getting a much better start than pole-man Jonathan Rea. Scott Redding took second place with Rea and Garrett Gerloff behind him. Alvaro Bautista passed Gerloff before turn five and Gerloff got barged out of the way by Alex Lowes. Razgatlioglu overcooked the 180 hairpin and Redding took over at the front.

Scott Redding led over the line but Razgatlioglu and Razgatlioglu both passed him into the Adelaide hairpin, with Rea taking the lead until Razgatlioglu took it back into the 180. Jonathan Rea went down at the last chicane, lifting his rear as he hit his engine case on the inner kerb, breaking his screen and gear shifter. To make the championship even more contentious, Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed out as well, with the rear wheel trying to throw him off at turn thirteen, but he lifted the brake and hit the gravel, recovering in last place with his airbag deployed.

Scott Redding led Alvaro Bautista with Loris Baz and Axel Bassani a couple of seconds behind. Bautista closed up on Redding on lap five, ending the lap under three tenths of a second off Redding. Bautista closed on the back straight, passing Redding into turn five, but Redding held on to the lead into the turn on the brakes. 

Lap seven, Bautista took the lead on the back straight and lost it into the turn, but Bautista had better drive out of the turn to take the lead into the 180. Loris Baz was under two seconds behind Redding with Axel Bassani under half a second further back. Michael Ruben Rinaldi fended off Alex Lowes and Garrett Gerloff to hold fifth place. At the start of lap ten, Bautista led Redding by just over a tenth of a second, with the BMW looking like a good bike for once. 

At half race distance, Alvaro Bautista led Scott Redding with Loris Baz two seconds behind them, joined by Axel Bassani and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. Garrett Gerloff and Alex Lowes were joined by Iker Lecuona in the fight for sixth place. Scott Redding remained under two tenths of a second off Alvaro Bautista at the start of lap twelve. Loris Baz crashed out into turn five after Michael Ruben Rinaldi shoved Axel Bassani aside for fourth place, elevated to third after Baz's crash. 

Alvaro Bautista set the fastest lap, a 1'36.715, on lap twelve. 

Michael Ruben Rinaldi joined the list of riders to crash out of a podium place, missing turn one and running across the gravel. Returning to race pace, Rinaldi barged Mahias off track to take ninth place. Razgatlioglu started lap fifteen in fifteenth place, taking fourteenth place from Kohta Nozane then thirteenth from Eugene Laverty with what looked like an impossible braking lunge. 

Alvaro Bautista led Scott Redding by over two seconds at the start of lap sixteen and increased the lead throughout the lap. Alex Lowes took fourth place from Garrett Gerloff. Jonathan Rea unlapped himself from the tail-enders in 24th place, lapping quicker than everyone else, eight hundredths of a second quicker than Bautista in the lead. 

With two laps left, Alvaro Bautista held a three second lead over Scott Redding who was over two seconds clear of Axel Bassani. Alex Lowes and Garrett Gerloff were over two seconds off Bassani and the podium, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi over seven seconds further back. Jonathan Rea in last place set a personal best lap, over half a second quicker than leader Bautista. Toprak Razgatlioglu caught Xavi Vierge and Michael van der Mark and passed them both to take eleventh place from the pair. 

Alvaro Bautista won by four seconds over Scott Redding with Axel Bassani taking his first feature race podium ahead of Axel Lowes and Garrett Gerloff. Toprak Razgatlioglu held on to eleventh place with Jonathan Rea finishing in twenty fourth place. 

In spite of lots of off-track excursions, the entire field of twenty four starters finished the race. 

Alvaro Bautista's win increased his lead at the top of the championship to fifty six points over Jonathan Rea. Toprak Razgatlioglu closed to within two points of Rea with his eleventh place finish netting him five points. Scott Redding took eighth place in the championship, only twenty seven points off Andrea Locatelli in fourth place. 

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