After winning the first race of the weekend at Misano Bautista backed it up by doing the double on Sunday

Alvaro Bautista has proven to be unstoppable once again as he takes a hat-trick of victories at the fifth round of the season in Misano. These three wins up Bautista’s win count this season to 14 out of 15.

The Spanaird now has an overall Championship lead of 86 points and so far in 2023 has shown no sign of slowing down. The only time in Misano that it looked like Bautista could be beaten was in the Superpole Race, which was cut short by a red flag.

The only rider who once again showed that they could battle with Bautista all weekend long was Yamaha’s, Toprak Razgatlioglu. The 2021 World Superbike Champion has admitted that Misano is his favourite track so expected to win at least a race on the weekend. The Turkish rider finished 3rd in Race One and then 2nd in the Superpole Race and Race Two.

There has been another twist in the tale of who will get the second Aruba.it Ducati seat for 2024 after this weekends action. The weekend started well for Michael Ruben Rinaldi after he finished 2nd in Race One and 3rd in the Superpole Race, but a DNF in Race Two allowed Axel Bassani to claim 3rd place and to stay 27 points ahead of Rinaldi in the Championship.

For the first time this season a Kawasaki rider did not feature on the podium in any of the three races. The six-time World Superbike Champion has struggled so far in 2023 and finished 5th in Race One and the Superpole Race and then inherited 4th in Race Two. Whereas, Alex Lowes had an even worse weekend as he finished 7th in Race One, 6th in the Superpole Race and then crashed out of the final race of the weekend.

Honda had a decent weekend around Misano, especially with Xavi Vierge. The Spaniard who has been linked with Kawasaki for 2024 finished 10th, 8th and 5th throughout the weekend. Former MotoGP rider, Iker Lecuona finished 8th in Race One but then had his weekend disrupted after he was taken out by Danilo Petrucci in the Superpole Race and then could not take part in Race Two.

BMW’s woes continue in 2023 after another poor weekend. Garrett Gerloff was by far the best BMW rider throughout the weekend. The Texan finished 13th, 9th and 8th across the three races this weekend. Scott Redding had another torrid weekend as he finished 11th, 11th and 14th.