Alvaro Bautista secured his second win of the weekend in a close fought battle with Jonathan Rea

Alvaro Bautista started the Superpole Race from pole position with Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu lining up alongside him. After a delayed start due to bike issue for Loris Baz it was Rea who took the lead into turn one with Bautista in behind him.

Bautista kept Rea honest on lap one as the small Spaniard immediately began to try and find a way through on the six time Champion. By the start of lap two Bautista found his way to the front and had seven more laps to open the gap on Rea.

Bradley Ray had an amazing start to the Superpole Race as on lap two he found himself up in 12th place battling with Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

By the start of lap four there were four front runners in the race, Bautista on a Ducati, Rea on a Kawasaki, Razgatlioglu on a Yamaha and then Alex Lowes on a Kawasaki. Behind the front quartet was Axel Bassani, Dominique Aegerter and Andrea Locatelli who were all battling for fifth place.

In the latter stages of the race Rea was piling the pressure onto the reigning Superbike Champion as Rea tries to force Bautista into a mistake.

With one lap to go Bautista had opened the gap up to half a second and set a lap time that would have put him fourth on the grid in qualifying. Rea was still sat in behind the Ducati, with Razgatlioglu and Lowes making up third and fourth.

Bautista crossed the line to take another victory in Assen and his seventh win of the season. Rea took another second place and Razgatlioglu secured another third place.

Images from WorldSBK.com