WorldSBK Australia Results, Race 2 - Bautista secures Australian treble

WorldSBK kicks of its 2023 season this weekend in Phillip Island, with Alvaro Bautista and Ducati beginning their defence of the crown they won so dominantly in 2022. Keep an eye on this page throughout the weekend for updated results from WorldSBK Australia.

Overview

• Race 2 - A perfect treble for Bautista as Ducati confirms superiority

• Superpole Race - A second dominant win of the weekend for Bautista, as Rinaldi completes Ducati 1-2

• Race 1 - Bautista takes wet race one win as Rea struggles with bike issues

• Superpole - Razgatlioglu takes first pole of 2022 as Rea misses front row

• Free Practice - Bautista kicks off 2023 with dominant Friday performance

Race 2

Having won the Superpole Race on Sunday morning, Alvaro Bautista of course started from pole position for the second full-length race of the weekend in Phillip Island. As such, it was no surprise to see him take the holeshot in WorldSBK Race Two in Australia, and similarly unsurprising to see him complete his weekend of domination of the first race weekend of 2023 with a third win from three races.

From the start, Bautista was supported by his teammate, Michael Rinaldi, in second place, and Andrea Locatelli was third - the only rider to go with the factory Ducati riders on the first lap. Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu, on the other hand, dropped back to fifth and sixth, respectively, in the first laps.

Axel Bassani had started the race well, but on lap four he was bumped back to sixth place by Rea and Razgatlioglu, who then had to look over one second up the road to find Andrea Locatelli, who himself saw the gap to his front - up to the second factory Ducati of Michael Rinaldi - extending out to over one second.

Before half-distance had been reached, the top three had distanced itself from the main battle, which was for fourth, and had a distinct feeling of several riders being held up by Jonathan Rea, who headed the group but had seemingly very little grip. The battle was incredibly intense, and stretched back to 11th-placed Dominique Aegerter - it could not have been more contrasting to the scene at the front, where the two factory Ducatis and the Yamaha of Andrea Locatelli existed in serene solitude.

With six laps to go, the first major championship points loss went the way of Toprak Razgatlioglu, who was unfortunately-placed when Alex Lowes crashed at turn four. Neither rider was at fault, although the #54 seemed to be frustrated with himself for putting his bike where he did, which was on the outside.

Even without a crash, Jonathan Rea fell to over a race win behind Bautista by the end of the first weekend of the season. The reigning champion's perfect score from Phillip Island was contrasted by two non-podium finishes for Rea, who was seventh in the Superpole Race, and finished Race Two in seventh, behind even Iker Lecuona on the Honda and the rookie Dominique Aegerter.

Bautista's treble was accompanied by a double- 1-2 for Ducati in Australia thanks to Michael Rinaldi who was second in both the Superpole Race and Race 2. In fact, Ducati had four bikes inside the top five, their monopoly of the top positions disrupted only by Andrea Locatelli.

Behind the #55 Yamaha were two more Ducatis, those of Axel Bassani and Philipp Oettl, while Iker Lecuona completed the top six. The aforementioned Aegerter was seventh, ahead of Rea, Danilo Petrucci, and Remy Gardner, who scored his first top 10 of the season.

Full results from WorldSBK Australia  Race 2 are below.

2023 WorldSBK Championship | Phillip Island, Australia | Race 2 Results

Superpole Race

Following Alvaro Bautista's victory in the opening race of the 2023 WorldSBK season, the Superpole Race already took on additional importance for his primary rivals, Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu. Nonetheless, there was no stopping the reigning champion as he took a dominant second win of the weekend.

Having qualified on pole position in Superpole on Saturday, Razgatlioglu began the (dry) 10-lap sprint race from the front, but there was nothing he could do about the power of the 2023 Ducati Panigale V4 R piloted by Bautista on the way to turn one, and the Spaniard took the holeshot.

By turn four, though, Razgatlioglu hit the front, while Jonathan Rea was forced down the order after an aggressive move from class rookie Dominique Aegerter, who went onto assert himself in the front places in the early laps.

Michael Rinaldi had also made a good start, and ended the first lap in fourth place, while Bautista returned to the front at the beginning of lap two - by the end of it he was pulling away.

Aruba.it Racing Ducati had a one-two by the end of lap four, while the bikes with more ordinary horsepower figures battled for the final podium spot behind, along with the satellite Panigale of Team GoEleven's Philipp Oettl.

There was a disaster for GRT Yamaha on lap six, as Remy Gardner misjudged a move on his teammate, Dominique Aegerter, hit the #77 YZF-R1, and the damage to the team's weekend was compounded by the implications for the Race Two grid.

By the end, Bautista's dominance was in absolutely no doubt, while Rinaldi confirmed a one-two for the factory Ducati squad. Toprak Razgatlioglu took his second third place of the weekend and season; while Alex Lowes held off Andrea Locatelli for fourth, and Philipp Oettl maintained sixth place ahead of Jonathan Rea, who did not make as much impacted as perhaps was expected after his early incident with Aegerter. Iker Lecuona, Axel Bassani, and Michael van der Mark completed the top 10.

Full WorldSBK Australia results from the Phillip Island Superpole Race are below.

2023 WorldSBK Championship | Phillip Island, Australia | Superpole Race Results

Race 1

As in Superpole, WorldSBK Race 1 in Phillip Island was preceded by a rain-affected WorldSSP session, that being a race which was won by Aruba.it Ducati's Nicolo Bulega. Unlike Superpole, the track remained wet for the Superbike class, which would begin its season with a grid exclusively using Pirelli's wet tyres.

Unsurprisingly, it was Alvaro Bautista who took the holeshot. He was ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea - a familiar sight - although Rea had passed both riders in front of him to lead by the end of the lap. Behind, the second factory Kawasaki of Alex Lowes rose up to third past Razgatlioglu.

Razgatlioglu was able to go with Lowes, though, and reclaimed third place on lap four. A few laps later and Bautista had caught Rea for the lead, as it appeared Rea's auto-blip had failed and he was having to manually blip the throttle on gear shifts.

Although Bautista was able to pass Rea - his speed advantage seeming even more distinct than last year - it was not until the race entered the final 10 laps that the Spaniard was able to begin to edge away from the mechanically-limited Rea.

In the end, Bautista's winning margin was comfortable over Rea, who himself was relatively well-clear of Razgatlioglu in third, as WorldSBK's three kings continued their domination of the podium. 

Andrea Locatelli was fourth, ahead of Axel Bassani, Iker Lecuona, Danilo Petrucci, Xavi Vierge, Scott Redding, and Garrett Gerloff, who completed the top 10. After the flag, an incident between Petrucci and Vierge was investigated for which Petrucci was demoted one position, dropping him from seventh to eighth, and promoting Vierge from eighth to seventh.

Full WorldSBK Australia results from the first race in Phillip Island are below.

2023 WorldSBK Championship | Phillip Island, Australia | Race 1 Results

Superpole

Phillip Island hosts WorldSBK's season opener in 2023, for the first time since 2020, and despite the return to its usual time at the start of the season the predictability is typically low at the Australian circuit.

Alvaro Bautista topped the running on Friday by almost half-a-second, but Iker Lecuona on the Honda took over in Saturday morning's FP3, which saw the weekend's - and the season's - first rain. That came back in WorldSSP qualifying, which preceded WorldSBK Superpole, but by the end of the middleweight session the track was dry, and it remained so for the one-litre class.

The end of the first run saw Jonathan Rea atop the times by over three tenths of a second from Michael Rinaldi, while Alvaro Bautista was third, but with the rain continuing to hold off there was still much to play for in the final five minutes of Superpole.

Rea dropped from first to fourth in those final five minutes, as Dominique Aegerter and then Toprak Razgatlioglu hit the top spot. A fast lap from Alvaro Bautista was only good enough for second, meaning Razgatlioglu will begin his reunion with the #54 plate in the first race of the weekend from pole position.

Joining the aforementioned Rea on the second row for the first race - and Superpole Race - will be Philipp Oettl and Michael Rinaldi; while Remy Gardner will begin his WorldSBK debut from seventh, alongside Alex Lowes and Andrea Locatelli. Danilo Petrucci rounded out the top 10 in his first Superpole session.

Full WorldSBK Australia Superpole results are below.

2023 WorldSBK Championship | Phillip Island, Australia | Superpole Results

Free Practice

The 2023 WorldSBK season has kicked off to the perfect start for Alvaro Bautista, as the reigning champion topped the first day of the season by almost half-a-second in Phillip Island.

Alvaro Bautista dominated WorldSBK in 2022, and he dominated the first day of the 2023 season, too. His margin over the rest of the field by the end of Friday in Australia was 0.446 seconds. Andrea Locatelli finished second in the combined standings for Yamaha, but in the afternoon FP2 session alone, it was Ducati dominance once more, with four Panigale V4 R machines in the top four positions: Bautista and factory teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi ahead of Philipp Oettl and class rookie Danilo Petrucci. 

The asphalt temperatures in the afternoon were unusually hot for Phillip Island, which when WorldSBK raced there for the final round of 2022 was hit by cold and unpredictable conditions. It was in these hot conditions that Bautista’s primary rivals from 2022, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea, seemed to struggle more, finishing 13th and 14th, respectively. 

Rea’s Kawasaki teammate, Alex Lowes, has complained of his feeling in hotter conditions during the test in Phillip Island earlier in the week, although he was able to finish FP2 inside the top 10 in eighth. 

As for Rea and Razgatlioglu, they remained in the top 10 in the combined times, in 5th and 10th respectively, but both clearly have work to do in the warmer temperatures.

2022’s bottom two manufacturers, Honda and BMW, also each had themselves a solid day on Friday in Phillip Island. For Honda, Iker Lecuona sits third in the combined standings overnight, despite having not raced at Phillip Island during his debut WorldSBK season in 2022 due to injury; while for BMW Michael van der Mark ended day one sixth overall, and Garrett Gerloff was top non-Ducati in FP2, finishing fifth.

The 2023 WorldSBK season will continue tomorrow, on Saturday, for Superpole and the first race of the season. WorldSBK’s third and final free practice session will begin tonight at 23:50 UK time, with Superpole getting underway at 02:10 tomorrow morning. 

Full WorldSBK FP1 & FP2 combined times from Phillip Island are below.

2023 WorldSBK Championship | Phillip Island, Australia | FP1 + FP2 Combined times

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