Everything happens at Motorland Aragon in a Saturday with a bittersweet taste for Aruba.it Racing – Ducati with Rinaldi in triumph and Bautista crashing when he was in the lead.
Starting from second position, Alvaro Bautista immediately took the lead and seemed able to build a solid margin over Rea (Kawasaki) and Razgatlioglu (Yamaha). With a lead of almost a second, on lap six the Spanish rider loses the front at Turn 8 and the result is a crash. Bautista rejoins the race, and makes up positions but in an attempt to grab twelfth place, he crashes again at the last corner.
Michael Rinaldi is consistent from the opening laps and after Bautista’s crash, he starts chasing Razgatlioglu and Rea. His race pace is incisive and allows him to attack first the Turkish and then the Northern Irishman on two consecutive laps (between 13th and 14th) to take the lead and celebrate in the parc ferme with his team.
Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #21)
“This is a special track, I won my first race here and I’m repeating myself today after a long time. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the top step of the podium, so I’m really happy. I have to say I interpreted the race well because I didn’t force it when Alvaro, Johnny and Toprak were creating a gap. I thought they were wearing out the tyre a lot and so I did my pace, and this allowed me to be faster in the second part of the race. I am very happy, for me and for my team. Tomorrow we will try again”.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #1)
“It is not a happy day because of the crash. I admit it was my fault, I made a mistake. But that doesn’t change the perception of an extremely good feeling with the bike. Right from the first few laps, I felt I had great confidence and I even took a bit of a lead. The final crash? I tried to make up positions to take some points also because I was enjoying riding. Maybe I went too far. It’s a lesson I learned and it’s always important to learn from mistakes.”
- WorldSSP
Nicolò Bulega and the Ducati Panigale V2 of the Aruba.it Racing WSSP team dominate from the first to the last lap and triumph in Race-1 at Aragon.
Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WSSP #11)
“I am very happy. It has been a great weekend so far. We have always been first both in free practice and qualifying and in the race I had an incredible feeling that allowed me to push in every sector of the track. The championship? Yes we are a little bit closer but I don’t want to lose concentration so I will only think about doing even better”.
