WorldSBK Argentina Race Two: Scott Redding wins bar bashing thriller
Scott Redding took a commendable victory in race two at Argentina.
Scott Redding took an incredibly well deserved win in race two of the WorldSBK weekend in Argentina after going toe to toe with Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and the unexpected Axel Bassani who has been absolutely spectacular this year as a rookie in the series. We witnessed an all-out war for the podium positions with the three main protagonists trading places every corner as the laps reeled off with Toprak Razgatlıoğlu showing some slight signs of weakness as he faltered following aggressive moves from both Rea and Redding.
The race commenced with the usual three combatants starting on the front row, the Yamaha leading the Ducati and the Kawasaki on the inside with the ideal line heading into T1 to make some overtakes, Rea was able to take Redding for P2 in the first corner before getting past Razgatlıoğlu for the race lead, from here on out there would be no mercy, the gloves were off and it was a case of the best man winning. Redding clearly had the pace and the speed to be able to win but it was a four-man scrap as Toprak would very quickly take up the mantle leading the race ahead of Rea with Axel Bassani showing his speed in third place over Redding.
For Razgatlıoğlu it was a similar tale from the Superpole race, he kept leaving the door wide open between turns eight and nine which allowed both Rea and Redding through on multiple occasions with the Yamaha man being pushed off the track slightly by Rea who was proving he can give it as much as he can take it, it wouldn’t be long before it was once again Jonathan Rea out in front.
The places between the top four continued to swap with Toprak retaking the lead, Redding would get past Rea for P2 before Bassani found himself in a podium position after demoting Rea to P4, the Kawasaki man very quickly returning to assume his place in the podium positions in third before Redding took the race lead, desperate to disappear into the distance and gap the field after proving his pace in all sessions throughout the weekend.
Redding was unable to hold P1 though and made a slight mistake allowing both Toprak and Rea through demoting the British rider to third, the eventual race winner would spend a few laps recomposing himself, following the footsteps of Rea, studying him and learning where his weaknesses are so he can strike at the perfect opportunity, something he pulled off seemingly with ease expending all the power of his Ducati V4 R to push back past Rea then Toprak, finding his rhythm and checking out of the race after very quickly putting a second between himself and second-placed Razgatlıoğlu, eventually winning the race with a margin of 2.4 seconds to second place.
From here we returned to a very familiar situation, Razgatlıoğlu vs Rea, we’ve seen it so many times already this year and it was destined to happen again at some point this weekend in Argentina despite Rea struggling with his setup all weekend long. Rea managed to work his way through on the Yamaha man who was making some rare errors, his tyres very clearly past their best, not that this would bother the Turkish rider too much given he spends a lot of his free time riding on old tyres to master the feeling of a bike with little to no grip. He wasn’t going to take this lying down and launched an all-out assault on Rea, making contact at turn eight to take P2 before Rea responded. Toprak knew he could beat Rea but he also knew what was on the line, eventually settling for second place and a strong points haul of 16 to move his title lead to 30 points with one round to go.
Fourth place went to Axel Bassani who got a front-row seat to the battle running only 1.5 seconds behind the pair, learning from them both to improve his own skills and ability, the 22-year-old pulled off a really impressive race and there’s no doubt we are going to have to get used to this! Rounding out the top five was Michael Ruben Rinaldi who found some very late-race pace to try and battle his way past Bassani, albeit it wasn’t enough eventually finishing 0.405 seconds behind his fellow Ducati man with Michael van der Mark in P6.
Andrea Locatelli got to taste something that wasn’t fourth this weekend, unfortunately for him it wasn’t podium champagne either however considering he’s a rookie at a brand new track his weekend was fairly successful and a P7 in race two is a mighty impressive result for the Yamaha man who led Garrett Gerloff in P8 by just 0.312 seconds with Chaz Davies and Alvaro Bautista rounding out the top 10 ahead of Leon Haslam and Tito Rabat who has seemingly found something this weekend on that Kawasaki.
Shout out to the two Argentine riders and teammates Luciano Ribodino and Marco Solorza who made their debuts this weekend and looked to have a mighty battle in race two finishing only 0.084 seconds between one another.
Full results –
Featured image – Ducati
