Crazy Saturday at Magny-Course. Rain began to fall after the first lap, making Race-1 of the French Round a real lottery.
Alvaro Bautista – forced to start from the seventeenth position after a tough qualifying session in wet conditions – started Race-1 on slick tyres, as did most of the riders, but was the first to come into the pits to mount rain tyres when it began to rain. The choice proved correct, allowing the Spanish rider to make up position after position until he reached the podium area. The crash of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki), who was leading the race with 12 laps to go, put him behind Van Der Mark (BMW), but the gap was too broad.
Nicolò Bulega, second on the grid, started the race on intermediate tyres but could not find feeling with the rear and crashed on the first lap after a scary high side. The Italian rider was taken to the Clinica Mobile for checks that ruled out fractures. He will be reviewed again tomorrow morning to get the doctors’ approval to participate in Superpole Race and Race-2.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #1)
‘It was a crazy race. Right after the start, as soon as I saw the first drop of rain on the fairing, I immediately returned to the pits, and my team did an amazing job getting me out of the pit lane without losing a second. It’s clear that the conditions were extreme, so I just tried to make it to the end without making any mistakes.’
Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #11)
‘We decided to start with the intermediate tyres, but the gamble turned out to be not ideal. Already at the first corners I had no feeling with the rear and crashed almost immediately. It has been a bad crash, and i feel a quite intense pain in my right shoulder. I will try anyway to race tomorrow.”
WorldSSP
Race-1 of the World Supersport Championship was suspended during the reconnaissance lap due to heavy rain and will be run tomorrow morning at 9.45am over a distance of 12 laps. Race-2 will instead start regularly at 2pm.
