Alvaro Bautista Dominates Race One Winning by Five Seconds from Toprak Razgatlioglu.

It’s the Motul Indonesian round two of the World Superbike championship. Aruba.it Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi topped the timing sheets on Friday, with his team-mate Alvaro Bautista finishing day one in second place. Toprak Razgatlioglu took the pole position for the second time this season, Andrea Locatelli qualified in second place with Alvaro Bautista rounding out the front row of the grid.

Unfortunately GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Remy Gardner was unable to take part in any of Saturday’s proceedings due to coming down with gastroenteritis, the virus was affecting a few of the riders. Rea got a three place grid penalty due to irresponsible riding during the Superpole session. Aruba.it Ducati were the only manufacturer using the SCX tyre, the rest were on the SC0.

Lights out as Toprak lead the field of 20 riders into turn one, Michael Ruben Rinaldi hit the back of Axel Bassani at turn one and crashed out of the race. Danilo Petrucci was up to fourth place, just behind Bassani.

Bautista was in second place on Toprak’s tail, Rea and Lowes were in sixth and seventh place respectively. Scott Redding was the highest placed BMW in ninth place, his fellow BMW riders were right behind him.

Three laps into the race the front group consisted of eight riders; from Toprak to Vierge. Rea passed his team-mate Lowes for sixth place, he then went on to take fifth place from rookie Petrucci.

Bautista took the lead on lap four, the Spaniard now had a clear track ahead of him to make the break from the pack. Bassani then went on and slipped underneath Toprak for second place with 16 laps to go. Micheal Van De Mark took ninth place from his team-mate Redding.

Toprak re-took second place from Bassani, Locatelli was in fourth place looking strong. Toprak gathered momentum and was catching Bautista with 12 laps to go. Lowes took fifth place from Rea, the Northern Irish rider just didn’t look comfortable as he was coming under pressure from Petrucci, Rea looked to be struggling with rear tyre grip.

Tom Sykes’ woes continued as he pulled into the pits with ten laps to go. Lowes and Bassani were battling for fourth place, the Italian wasn’t giving up the position any time soon! Scott Redding pulled into the pits with 9 laps remaining to the race, the Brit wasn’t happy!

The Kawasaki’s were really struggling in the later part of the race, Lowes was in seventh and Rea was down in ninth. The front trio consisted of Bautista, Toprak and Locatelli, Petrucci was in fifth place just behind his fellow compatriot Bassani.

Bautista crossed the line with a five second lead from Toprak, Locatelli finished in third place, Bassani was fourth with Petrucci finishing in a very strong fifth place.

Featured Images: WorldSBK.com