World Superbike Championship: Alvaro Bautista wins race 2 at Phillip Island

Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista won all the races at the first event of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island in Australia.  As a result, he travels to the second event in Indonesia as the clear world championship leader.  His direct world championship rivals Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) missed the jump into the top 3 and left many points on Sunday.

Bautista leads field, Razgatlioglu starts badly

Bautista pulled away from his pursuers early in the race.  In the chasing group, Rea, Razgatlioglu and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) were able to get past Axel Bassani (Ducati) and start chasing Locatelli.  Philipp Öttl (Ducati) also fought his way into the chasing group and was within striking distance of Bassani.  In the Miller curve Öttl pushed past Bassani and Iker Lecuona (Honda) on lap ten and was directly behind Razgatlioglu in sixth position.  On the straight, the German passed Razgatlioglu and was sixth.  A few corners later Razgatlioglu countered and Bassani also pushed past again.

Alex Lowes and Toprak Razgatlioglu crash at Miller corner

The race took a dramatic turn when there was an accident at the Miller corner with six laps to go.  Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes went over the limit and crashed over his front wheel.  The crash resulted in World Championship contender Toprak Razgatlioglu of Yamaha also crashing and retiring from the race.  The chasing group shrank to four riders in the meantime as Dominique Aegerter and Danilo Petrucci lost touch in the closing stages.

Philipp Öttl and Dominique Aegerter defeat Jonathan Rea

During the race, the chasing group for fourth place pulled apart.  Axel Bassani secured fourth place and crossed the finish line ahead of Ducati brand colleague Philipp Öttl, who ended up in fifth.  This meant that four Ducati riders made it into the top 5, which was a bitter defeat for the other manufacturers.  Iker Lecuona edged out record champion Jonathan Rea in the final laps and Dominique Aegerter also passed the number 65 Kawasaki.  Jonathan Rea only managed a disappointing eighth place.  The top 10 was completed by MotoGP race winner Danilo Petrucci and Honda factory rider Xavi Vierge.  Remy Gardner finished eleventh after his penalty.  After the race, Vierge received a penalty for overtaking under yellow.  He was penalized by one position and classified as eleventh.

BMW shows disappointing performance

The BMW riders had difficulties and could not convince.  Michael van der Mark was the best BMW rider in twelfth place.  Compared to last year, BMW could not yet improve with the new M1000RR and was so far the taillight of the five manufacturers.  BMW teammate Scott Redding finished 13th, more than 34 seconds behind.  The two Bonovo BMW riders Garrett Gerloff and Loris Baz finished in 14th and 15th positions.

Bautista takes maximum points

Bautista rode to an unchallenged victory and lived up to his role as favorite.  Rinaldi finished second and secured important points.  Locatelli rode from the start in third position and stayed out of the fierce duels in the chasing group.  Four Ducati riders made it into the top 5.

Outlook for the next event in Mandalika (Indonesia)

Next weekend, the action continues in Mandalika (Indonesia).  Alvaro Bautista goes into the next race weekend with a clear lead in the standings.  His direct world championship rivals Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu will give everything to get back into the top 3 and collect important points for the championship.  It will be exciting to see whether they can prevail against the dominant Ducati rider.