Scott Redding looked every inch a WorldSBK race winner until the final lap of Race One at Most. Even when Toprak Razgatlioglu tried to pass he couldn’t quite make it stick, and Redding made a mini-break again.

Then, on the entry to the penultimate corner, Razgatlioglu lined up the Ducati rider again and made a bold move inside, causing Redding to lift.

Razgatlioglu got the win by 0.040 seconds, and a significant win at that, as Jonathan Rea (KRT) had crashed not once but twice and watched the drams unfold while sitting trackside watching Razgatlioglu take points from Redding.

How did Redding feel about the championship leader’s no score that pass and losing the race? He looked at it from both sides, it appears. “When I look at the big picture, happy,” he said. “I should be happy for second. I led like 90 per cent of the race, and just to have a little bit naughty move like that, that’s what makes me angry.

“We already discussed about safety this week, and in my opinion I wouldn’t do anything a bit risky. Like, where Jonathan overtook Toprak I thought, uh… Through this left. I thought, what are you doing? Really risky for both of you, but these guys don’t seem to think that. It’s okay. I felt good on the bike. I managed to get a good rhythm.

“Then I struggled a little bit in the middle and I pushed again. But just the way Toprak was overtaking at the end was very desperate. From my side, I don’t like that because it’s not like you out-brake someone, you come next to them, and you go in. Okay. But coming from a distance back, which I guess he did because I didn’t hear him, I just saw him, I almost maybe even had my knee to the floor.

It’s a bit late. If I fully committed to that corner, he would have hit me. Possibly both crashed. It was only because I maybe thought, it’s possible he’s going to do it, expect it. Just expect it. So, as soon as I saw the wheel, I had to pull out of this because I know where he’s going. The apex of the corner is here, but he’s not stopping until two or three meters deeper. So in theory, he’s not staying on his racing line. He’s pushing you off the line.”

Redding knew that Razgatlioglu would come for another go, so he felt he had used a defensive line.

“I tried to protect,” he said. “I knew he was coming, so I even tried to protect. Then when I went in, there he was. It just pisses me off a little bit because anyone can do that, but is it worth the risk? I would have been really angry if we both crashed. Then I would have been really angry. What’s the point? You get five points, you need the five points but you potentially could have lost those 25 points. So that just aggravated me a little bit.”

At time of speaking Redding did not know Rea had crashed twice but, he was happy that he proved to be unhurt. He was less happy that he could not make his advantage over Razgatlioglu really stick. “ I really thought I could win that race,” he explained, “I had the pace. I showed the pace. Somehow Toprak was catching me in middle of the race. I need to understand why. I started to feel the track which was very slippery.

‘There were a lot of crashes at one point, one after the other. Every lap another person crashed. I was like, whoa. So, I kind of backed it up a little bit because I was leading the way. So, I just kind of recovered. Then he was catching me quite fast. I made a couple of small mistakes and then I got the rhythm again. Then that was it. He just made the move. Back to second for me. If you want to race like that, then I’ll race like that.”

The Ducati seemed plainly faster than the other two bikes from Yamaha and Kawasaki but Redding said it was more about corner exit onto the main straight, and then the important Turn One overtaking opportunity. “It’s because I exit the last corner better than the other guys. I have a good feeling on the exit. We do different lines, but my line gives me an advantage in the straight. I need to use the strong point of the bike.

“So, it’s quite good and I’m quite strong on the brakes also here, which helps me also for the speed trap. But I was able to get a good run and use the slipstream. So that was quite good for us. But you see, yesterday I checked the times. Ducati fastest sector one, Yamaha fastest sector two, Kawasaki fastest in sector three, and BMW fastest sector four. In one of the practices, each manufacturer had one bike fastest in the sector.”

Whether or not Redding would remain a Ducati rider in 2022 has been under discussion recently, but it appears he would like to stay for sure. And he is clearly the leading Ducati rider still, despite a proven race-winning team-mate in Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

“When a bike is good, everyone can ride it,” said Redding. “When it’s not so good, that’s what makes a difference in a rider. I like when people appreciate that. It gets under my skin a little bit when people don’t, when they just kind of expect it, because if they expect it, I don’t know where the other guys finished. I guess not fighting for the win. Fourth and fifth, a couple of crashes there, not bad. But I was quite happy with my performance and the bike, so it’s good.

‘We are talking, of course. We are talking to different teams. Like I said, teams see this appreciation and my dedication, my hard work and my fight to succeed in a difficult situation. So, there’s been a lot of interest from other manufacturers, but we need to see what is the best option for me because I still want to win races, so I need to have a package that is capable of doing that.”

When it was put to him that the options for other winning bikes were limited he said, “You never know. There can always be a third bike somewhere.”