Catalunya World Superbike Race (1) Results: Rampant Bautista wins again

World Superbike champion Alvaro Bautista has won his ninth race out of ten although disaster struck Ducati following a lcash between two of its riders.

Despite a slitgly sluggish launch, Bautista’s straight line speed meant he was able to hold off Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Jonathan Rea on the run to turn one.

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The biggest mover was Andrea Locatelli as the factory Yamaha rider came from the fourth row to end lap one in P4, one spot ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu. 

Locatelli was demoted to fifth by his teammate as Razgatlioglu began showing his prowess under braking. 

Doing his best to stay with Bautista, Rinaldi was within six tenths of his teammate after two laps, however, lap three was a significant one as Bautista then improved his lead to over a second. 

A red flag was then deployed on lap four following a crash for PETRONAS MIE Honda rider Eric Granado. The Brazilian went down at turn 11 before being stretchered away by marshals trackside.

Once the incident was cleared, a new race distance of 17 laps was confirmed as Bautista started from pole once again. 

Bautista made a much better start this time around as he held onto the lead from Rinaldi and Axel Bassani.

On lap two, Rinaldi and Bassani came to blows as contact was made at turn three. On the racing line, Bassani was instead moved out wide by Rinaldi before more contact was made at turn 10.

This time it resulted in Rinaldi crashing out after Bassani was the rider who initiated contact. The incident was then investigated by race direction before a Long-lap penalty was awarded to Bassani.

Prior to their incident, there was another incident as Scott Redding crashed out at turn ten after running into the rear of Lorenzo Baldassarri's Yamaha. 

Bassani, who was over two seconds down on race leader Bautista, took the penalty immediately and subsequently lost out to Rea, Razgatlioglu and Locatelli.

While Bassani attempted to make a comeback to podium places by overtaking Locatelli for P4, Bautista was in a league of his own as he stretched his lead to over six seconds.

Struggling behind Iker Lecuona, Alex Lowes suffered a crash with seven laps to go which was his second of the day.

Failing in his bid to close in on Rea and Razgatlioglu, Bassani instead went backwards as Locatelli came back through with 4 laps remaining.

After following Rea all race, Razgatlioglu finally made his move at the start of the final lap and was completely out of shape while doing so.

But the Yamaha rider somehow managed to make the apex at turn one before holding on until the checkered flag.

Catalunya World Superbike records

Lap record - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati 1:41.135s

2022 Race Winners

Race 1 - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

Superpole Race - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati 

Race 2 - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

Weekend schedule (UK time) 

Friday

Free Practice 1 - 09:30-10:15

Free Practice 2 - 14:00-14:45

Saturday 

Free Practice 3 - 08:00-08:30

Superpole - 10:10-10:25

Race 1 - 13:00

Sunday 

Warm-up - 08:00-08:15

Superpole Race -10:00

Race 2 - 13:00