Alvaro Bautista wins another dramatic WSBK race, holding off Toprak Razgatlioglu in the final laps.

For the final World Superbike installment of the weekend, Toprak Razgatlioglu was on pole position, Alvaro Bautista lined up in second place with Jonathan Rea rounding out the front row in third place.

Lights out for the final time and it was Alvaro who got the holeshot into Redgate, Toprak took the lead a corner later. A three-rider incident took place at Coppice which brought out the Red Flag, involving Tom Sykes, Loris Baz and Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

The race was restarted over 22 laps, Alvaro got a sharp start and lead into Redgate. Rea got into second place, Andrea Locatelli was in fourth place. Rea ran wide at the Melbourne Loop handing second place to Toprak.

Toprak made a move on Alvaro at the Melbourne Loop for first place, Alvaro ran wide which let Rea through to second place. Gerloff was having a good ride in fifth place, the American was top placed BMW rider, Redding was in eighth place.

After four laps Toprak was still leading from Rea, Alvaro was 0.271s behind the leading duo. The leading trio weren’t breaking away from the rest of the field, Locatelli and Alex Lowes were catching Alvaro in third place.

With 14 laps to go Toprak looked to be losing grip as he entered the corners of the Midlands circuit. Alex Lowes was now in fourth place and was the fastest man on track. Alvaro slipped his Ducati underneath Rea and took second place. Toprak and Alvaro started to pull away at the front, Alvaro put the fastest lap of the race in with 11 laps to go, he was just biding his time to make his move for the lead.

Lap 13 and Alvaro took the lead as the two riders tipped into Redgate, Toprak retook the lead two corners later, Toprak was riding the wheels off his Yamaha machinery! Alvaro took the lead again at Redgate a lap later, Alvaro looked to have the edge over Toprak with eight laps remaining to the race.

Petrucci was putting Rea under pressure for third place, the Italian made his move at the Old Hairpin to take third place. Redding was on the move and made a move on Lowes for fifth place, had the Brit got enough in the tank to chase for a podium finish? With three laps to go, Redding took fourth place from Rea and had Petrucci in his sight.

Alvaro crossed the line to take the victory, Toprak finished in second place, Petrucci crossed the line to take his first podium finish of the season so far, Redding held on to fourth place, Rea finished in fifth place.

Featured Images: Olithephoto.