Bautista and Rea were battling for second position in the final race of the weekend behind eventual winner Toprak Razgatlioglu when the six-time champion clattered into the side of Bautista’s Ducati at the Chateau d’Eau right-hander on lap 2, forcing him on the ground.
Rea was deemed responsible for the collision by the stewards and handed a long-lap penalty, but he recovered from that to finish fifth, while Bautista suffered only his second DNF of the season.
The retirement effectively reversed the advantage Bautista had built by winning Saturday’s opening race in which both Rea and Razgatlioglu crashed, bringing his lead back down to 30 points over the Yamaha rider.
Asked how severe a penalty the Ulsterman deserved for taking him out of the race, Bautista said: “Just the same result as me, no finish [to] the race, so black flag. For me it was more fair but at the end I don’t decide the penalty.
“Also, it’s not a question about points or championship, it’s a question of safety. I was lucky I didn’t break nothing physically, but what [would have] happened if I arrive to the gravel with the bike and I twist my leg and I broke one bone. What happens then?
“If it’s a mistake from riding, okay everybody makes mistakes and push out other riders and okay it’s a race incident.
“But I think today was clear that it was intentional that he went [into me]. That’s the problem. If [the race control] accept this kind of maneouvres [it is wrong]. He did exactly what he want to do. I think they cannot accept this kind of thing.“
Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati, Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WSBK
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Bautista said he hadn’t spoken to Rea in the immediate aftermath of the race, but felt his move was “not worthy of a champion”.
“No, I think he knows very well what he did, he knows very well that he got what he wanted to do. So for me I have nothing to say to him,” said the Spaniard.
“But I think these kind of actions is not proper from a champion. He won many championships and it’s an unacceptable a maneouvre like this coming from a rider like him.
“For me it shows that he is very fast, he is very brave but he is not a real champion because this kind of thing a champion never does.”
Bautista added that it wasn’t his duty to seek a stricter penalty for Rea, insisting that it is race direction’s job to sanction riders based on how serious the offence…
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