Bautista Takes Sunday Double Win In Aragón

Grid Talk Reporter 14:42 10/04/2022

Ducati's Álvaro Bautista dominated the second World Superbike feature race to take an early championship lead following the season opener at Aragón. 

Just like in the earlier Superpole race, Bautista raced clear as Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Michael Ruben Rinaldi battled behind. Race one winner Rea eventually finished in second place for Kawasaki. Yamaha's reigning champion Razgatlıoğlu  beat the Ducati of Rinaldi to secure third place. Bautista, who returned to Ducati for 2022 after two seasons with Honda, leads Rea in the standings by three points. The start to the season has echoes of the 2019 campaign, when Bautista dominated the start of the season ahead of Rea, who consistently finished second, before the Northern Irishman stormed back to claim the fifth of his six championships.

Unlike in the earlier Superpole race, where Bautista dominated from lights to flag, Rea led into the first corner from third on the grid for the 18-lap race. Bautista hit back on the pit straight on lap two but Rea, where he was visibly stronger on his Kawasaki, swept up the inside of turn seven to immediately respond. However the Spaniard powered past Rea on the back straight, and his Ducati team-mate Rinaldi attempted a move into the first corner which forced Rea wide and allowed Razgatlıoğlu ahead of the Kawasaki. With Rea bottled in behind the reigning champion, who ended the Northern Irishman's run of six titles in a row last year, Bautista extended his advantage at the front. However Rea pulled off a brilliant move on Razgatlıoğlu at the start of the fourth lap to retake third and he set about chasing the Ducati duo.

Unlike the frantic race one - which saw Rea edge out Bautista for the win by 0.090 seconds - and Superpole race, the action settled as the gap to the leaders began to come down. Rea surged past Rinaldi, who had earlier played out a thrilling battle in the Superpole race, when the Italian ran wide with eight laps to play. However Rea could not rein in Bautista, who eased to his second victory of the day to leave the opening round of the championship at the top of the standings. Razgatlıoğlu beat Rinaldi to the final step on the podium after a tight battle in the closing stages of the race.

Alex Lowes, Rea's Kawasaki team-mate, was fifth in his best result of the weekend ahead of Motocorsa Ducati rider Axel Bassani. Bonovo Action BMW's Loris Baz was 7th with teammate Eugene Laverty 12th. Honda debutants Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona sandwiched GRT Yamaha's Garrett Gerloff in 9th. Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was 11th, followed by Laverty, Philipp Öttl (GoEleven Ducati), Roberto Tamburini (Motoxracing Yamaha) and Illia Mykhalchyk - racing for the factory BMW outfit in place of the injured Michael van der Mark. Mykhalchyk's works BMW stablemate Scott Redding, who vacated the Ducati seat taken by Bautista, failed to finish the race, retiring on the fifth lap. The second round of the season takes place at Assen in the Netherlands from 22-24 April.

Race 2 (18 Laps)

Superpole Race (10 Laps)

Warm Up

Race 1 (18 Laps)

Superpole

FP3

FP2

FP1