Alvaro Bautista took his 19th Victory in World Superbikes and takes the championship lead

Jonathan Rea starts from pole position with Toprak Razgatlioglu in second and Alvaro Bautista in third, Toprak and Bautista swapped places after the Spaniard exceeded track limits on the final corner in the Superpole Race.

The lights went out and Toprak got the holeshot into turn one with Andrea Locatelli moving up into second, Bautista was third and Iker Lecuona in fourth. Rea and Garrett Gerloff had a coming together at turn five and Gerloff and was slowing off the track after his front fairing come off.

On lap two Loris Baz went down in turn eight as well as Philip Oetll had crashed out of the race. Bautista passed Locatelli into to the GT chicane with Rea going around the outisde of Lecuona at the same corner.

Rea then passed Locatelli into turn eight and once again it was Toprak, Bautista and Rea in the top three. Bautista passed Toprak into the GT chicane but Alvaro had a moment on the front on the exit and Toprak was able to retake the lead.

Rea was able to close up on Bautista through turn 15 to setup a pass into the chicane and moved his way into second place.

Toprak out-braked himself into turn one and ran wide but remained on track, Rea looked to go up the inside and they collided and they both went down! Bautista had to take avoiding action through turn two and Lecuona took advantage and took the lead of the race.

Bautista was able to retake Lecuona one lap later and started to pull a gap. Scott Redding was doing a much better job than he’d done all season and was in seventh place and on the back of the group for third place, right behind his former team-mate Michael Ruben Rinaldi with the Brit getting passed the Italian.

Redding was now attacking Alex Lowes for fifth place, trying at turn one on lap 11, but he ran wide and Lowes retook the position.

Xavi Vierge, Michael Van Der Mark and Lucas Mahias were battling together for eighth place with Vierge cutting underneath the home rider at turn five to lead the trio.

Axel Bassani was in fourth place with eight laps to go, but he was overtaken by Lowes and Redding, then Redding went into fourth at the GT chicane out-braking Lowes and looked to try and catch Locatelli for the podium place.

Locatelli was closing in on Lecuona and looking for a way passed with four laps remaining, Redding didn’t look to be catching having to hold off Bassani for fourth. Andrea made his move on the inside of turn five and made it stick to move into second place and immediately began to open up a gap over the Spaniard but the Honda was making up time in the final sectors.

Lowes passed Bassani into the chicane and looked to try and take fourth from Redding, but Scott was very strong on the brakes which had been a problem for him over the past two rounds.

Bautista had a nine second gap over Locatelli and just had to bring his Aruba.it Ducati home, Locatelli and Lecuona looked set for the podium, but the battle for fourth place was still up for grabs.

Lowes passed Redding into turn one and pulled out a gap over the BMW, Bassani was still looking possible to get through.

Alvaro Bautista crossed the line to takes his 19th World Superbike win making sure not to exceed track limits again. Andrea Locatelli took his best finish in second and Iker Lecuona took his maiden podium in World Superbikes.

Alex Lowes was in fourth with Axel Bassani in fifth overtaking Scott Redding on the last lap. Rinaldi finished in seventh with Van Der Mark in eighth ahead of Vierge and Mahias who rounded out the top ten.

Bassani was given a three second time penalty for exceeding track limits so Redding was promoted to fifth and Bassani demoted to sixth.

Bautista now has a 18 point lead over Rea in the championship with Toprak 44 points behind. World Superbikes head to Estoril for Round Three in three weeks time, who will be leading the championship when they leave Portugal?

Featured Images: WorldSBK.com