Assen WorldSBK Race 1 Results | Rea beats Bautista in last lap duel

Toprak Razgatlioglu made the holeshot from pole position, ahead of his teammate, Andrea Locatelli, at the start of Race 1 for the WorldSBK field in Assen.

Locatelli was overcome by Jonathan Rea at turn seven on the first lap, which was critical for Rea to allow Razgatlioglu as little time as possible to break away. 

By the end of lap two, Razgatlioglu and Rea were breaking away from Locatelli in third, who, in turn, was creating some distance between himself and Alex Lowes.

Rea took the lead on lap four, as Razgatlioglu suffered a bad run out of the final chicane, but the Kawasaki rider was not able to break away from his rivals, and those behind began to close back in. 

By lap 10, Locatelli was beginning to suffer, and, sensing an opportunity, Bautista passed for third place. There was some distance for the Spaniard to make up to Razgatlioglu and Rea ahead - who were pretty much glued together - and almost immediately he began to eat into that gap, and in just over a lap he had made it a three-way battle for the lead.

Razgatlioglu hit the front again at the end of lap 13, having been pressured by Bautista. He passed Rea into the final chicane with a typically tough-but-fair out-braking move, but the six-times champion dug in to keep pace with the #1. 

Rea was back to the front with six laps to go, and Razgatlioglu was back to third place by turn seven, and the front three stayed together for the remainder of the race. But Rea and Bautista - as in Aragon - were able to pull away slightly from Razgatlioglu in the end of the race, which meant it was down to them to decide the winner. 

Bautista’s best chance was in the Timmer Chicane, because he was able to carry better speed through the fast corners that led to it than his rivals, but Rea was better on the brakes, and able to drop it across Bautista’s nose into the final corner. 

That brought Rea his 16th Assen win in WorldSBK, and took him back to the top of the World Championship. Bautista held onto second place, ahead of Razgatlioglu who completed the podium. 

Andrea Locatelli took fourth place - reassuming his most common position of 2021 - after both Lowes and Rinaldi retired from the race. Rinaldi had crashed at De Strubben before riding back to the pits, while Lowes’ retirement was due to a mechanical issue. 

Iker Lecuona completed the top five, ahead of Loris Baz and Philipp Oettl - all three taking their best results of the season in Assen Race 1 - while Scott Redding finished ninth for his best finish since joining BMW. 

Redding was battling with Garrett Gerloff, who ended up beating the #45 in their battle for eighth, despite Gerloff being the only rider to choose the SC0 rear tyre, while everyone else took the softer SCX-compound. 

Full Assen WorldSBK Race 1 results below.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Assen, Netherlands | Race 1 RESULTS