Phillip Island World Superbike Results: Bautista untouchable on opening day

Alvaro Bautista dominated the opening day of World Superbike action at Phillip Island, while main rivals Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea struggled.

Languishing down the order following FP1, both Bonovo Action BMW riders Loris Baz and Garrett Gerloff made immediate improvements as they bettered their time from FP1. 

• Razgatlioglu ‘struggling’ - Bautista not convinced, ‘I don’t think he pushed’ 
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After setting a low 1m 31s lap to finish top of Practice 1, Bautista also found more pace early on as he broke into the 1m 30s for the first time this weekend.

Making it a Ducati 1-2-3 were Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Phillip Oettl, while Razgatlioglu remained off the pace. 

A technical issue meant Scott Redding had to watch the beginning of FP2 from pit lane.

The British rider initially headed out onto the circuit before immediately returning to the BMW garage.

The only rider within half a second of Bautista, Rinaldi was still over three tenths down on his teammate while Alex Lowes was the first non-Ducati in fourth - +0.847s. 

Like Razgatlioglu, Rea was also finding it tough in FP2 as the Kawasaki rider was unable to go any quicker than P15 for a significant period of time. 

Continuing his impressive form from FP1, Andrea Locatelli then split the Ducati top three as he moved ahead of Oettl. 

Although he started to make improvements during the final 15 minutes, Razgatlioglu was losing huge chunks of time to Bautista in every sector.

Razgatliolglu momentarily moved up to 13th before making that P10 on his next lap, however, more than a second remained between the top two from last season. 

As Rea also found time - not enough to get within a second - Bautista then moved the benchmark time forward once again after setting a time of 1:30.623s. 

Bautista’s lap put him more than six tenths clear of Rinaldi, while Danilo Petrucci was up to third aboard his Barni Ducati machine. 

On course to challenge Bautista, Locatelli then lost three tenths in sector three before crashing at turn ten.

World Superbike weekend Schedule (UK time)

Saturday 

Free Practice 3 - 23:50-00:20

Superpole - 02:10-02:25

Race 1 - 05:00

Sunday 

Warm-up - 23:30-23:45

Superpole Race - 02:00

Race 2 - 05:00

Bautista tops opening World Superbike practice of 2023

Just as they ended the final of pre-season testing, Bautista and locatelli could barely be separated atop the leaderboard.

The reigning world champion once again got the better of the Pata Yamaha rider, but this time by 0.037s, while Iker Lecuona, who suffered a big moment at turn 4 before crashing at turn ten moments later, also ended the session within a tenth of his fellow Spaniard.

Continuing the theme of every test in pre-season, Bautista put together a stunning run of consistent pace which included a stint of 20 laps at the beginning of FP1.

Six-time WorldSBK champion Rea was nearly three tenths down on Bautista’s time as he finished fourth, while Rinaldi was fifth ahead of Michael Van Der Mark, who made it five different manufacturers inside the top six. 

Like on day two of the Phillip Island test, Razgatlioglu failed to match the pace shown by  both Rea but in particular Bautista, instead finishing half a second down in eighth.