WSBK: Alvaro Bautista Wins the Superpole Race at Phillip Island.
By Dawn Hammersley
Alvaro Bautista Takes the Superpole Victory, the Spaniards thirty fourth WSBK Victory.
The conditions at the Australian circuit were perfect compared to race one’s yesterday. Toprak Razgatlioglu was on pole position, Alvaro Bautista was in second place on the grid with rookie Dominique Aegerter lining up in third place.
Bautista got the holeshot into turn one, Rea was up to third place, Michael Ruben Rinaldi made a better start and was in fifth place. Toprak took first place at Millers, Rea got pushed back to ninth place after having to sit the bike up at Miller’s after an overtake by Aegerter.
Alex Lowes was into second place on lap two, Bautista was back leading the race, Toprak was in third place. Aegerter was holding his own in fourth place dicing Rinaldi. Remy Gardner was in sixth place chasing his team-mate.
With seven laps to go Rinaldi was on a charge getting up to third place, the Italian then made a move on Lowes for second place and made it stick. It was now a Ducati one-two, Toprak passed Lowes to get back in the mix. Rea was still down in ninth place battling with Oettl.
Remy took his team-mate out on lap five at Millers, the Australian went into the turn a bit too hot! Tom Sykes pulled into the pits again, another disappointing race for the Brit.
Andrea Locatelli was all over the back of Lowes with three laps to go, Rea was in seventh place. Bautista was running away with the race again extending his lead to his team-mate Rinaldi. Michael Van Der Mark was the highest BMW in tenth place.
Bautista crossed the line to take his second victory of the weekend, Rinaldi was second, Toprak finished in third place, Lowes clung on to fourth place just in front of Locatelli, Rea could only manage seventh place.
Featured Image: WorldSuperbike.com