WorldSBK Aragon SP Race Results | Bautista romps to dominant Ducati win

Alvaro Bautista has returned to the WorldSBK winners’ circle with his first victory since 2019 after a dominant romp to victory in the Superpole Race at Motorland Aragon. 

After just missing out on the spoils in Race 1, the Spaniard was in formidable form for the first of Sunday’s two races, powering into the lead on the opening lap before sprinting home more than five seconds clear of the opposition. 

A sure sign that Bautista is back to the best of his form on his return to the Ducati stable, there was little stopping the ex-MotoGP rider once he’d dispatched of Toprak Razgatlioglu with a bolshy lunge into Turn 5.

Thereafter he was untouchable, leaving a fierce fight for second in his wake as Razgatlioglu, Jonathan Rea and Michael Ruben Rinaldi disputed the remaining podium positions.

Having jostled for position for much of the race, Rea eventually got his decisive move planted on lap eight with an aggressive overtake into Turn 1 that forced both wide and allowed the close-following Rinaldi to pick both riders off to move into second.

However, Rea fought back a few corners later to reclaim the second position he’d hold to the chequered flag, before Razgatlioglu held his nerve in a final corner lunge to beat Rinaldi to third on the run to the line.

Behind the top four, Andrea Locatelli held onto fifth position by barely a tenth from sixth place man Alex Lowes, while Axel Bassani recovered from a difficult Race 1 to secure seventh at the flag on the Motocorsa Ducati.

With the top nine finishers dictating the front three rows on the grid for Race 2, Honda HRC riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge reeled off the points’ paying positions in eighth and ninth.

Behind them, Garrett Gerloff came home in tenth place, ahead of BMW trio Eugene Laverty, Scott Redding and Loris Baz, with Lucas Mahias and Roberto Tamburini rounding out the top fifteen.

Elsewhere, Ilya Mikhalchik was the only non-finisher after a crash at Turn 5 on lap five.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Motorland Aragon, Spain | Superpole Race RESULTS