Bautista breaks free for ‘lucky 13’ win, Rea recovers to fourth

Jerez WorldSBK - Superpole Race Results

Alvaro Bautista comfortably notched up his 13th win of the 2019 World Superbike Championship season with an untroubled lights-to-flag ride in the Jerez Superpole Race, as Jonathan Rea limited the damage to his title hopes by recovering from last to fourth.

Starting from pole position at the expense of Rea, who was demoted to the back of the 19-rider grid as punishment for his incident with Alex Lowes in race one, Bautista got the hole-shot from the lights and quickly got the hammer down.

Pulling his lead out to a high of three seconds, the Aruba.it Ducati rider simply controlled the pace thereafter to cruise home with his 13th victory in 15 races.

In a repeat of the top three from race one, Michael van der Mark and Marco Melandri followed Bautista home in second and third.

Another charging effort from van der Mark, though the Dutchman initially became embroiled in an almost physical exchange with Pata Yamaha team-mate Alex Lowes as they tussled it out for fifth, he’d break free to move up to third place before hunting down and passing Yamaha counterpart Melandri for second on lap eight.

Rea went some way to redeeming himself with a run to fourth, the Ulsterman scything through the order to go from 19th to tenth by the end of lap one, reaching his peak position by lap six before fading from the podium fight.

However, there was more disappointment for his race one ‘sparring partner’ Lowes after the Pata Yamaha crashed at turn seven on lap four whilst battling with van der Mark. Despite the high-speed of the tumble, he walked away from the incident, though he now starts 18th for race two.

Tom Sykes matched his best-finish of the season in fifth place for BMW, getting the better of Leon Haslam, who ran third early on before fading to sixth, ahead of privateer Kawasakis Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jordi Torres, with Sandro Cortese and a struggling Chaz Davies completing the top ten.

Making gains over his grid position, Tommy Bridewell climbed to 12th place, where he will start for the final race.