Bautista makes history with World Superbike treble
Alvaro Bautista took complete control in the final World Superbike race at Phillip Island to secure a historic hat-trick of wins
Full WorldSBK race two results for Phillip Island
Alvaro Bautista took complete control in the final World Superbike race at Phillip Island to secure a historic hat-trick of wins on his debut.
On Saturday the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider became the sixth rider in history to win on his World Superbike debut, and first since Max Biaggi in 2007, before following that feat with a perfect Sunday double.
In the first-ever sprint race Bautista held off Jonathan Rea’s charge to take victory and in the full length race two Bautista took advantage of his superior pace and tyre conservation to ease to a hat-trick of World Superbike wins.
Bautista blasted clear from pole position and built his lead up to over 18 seconds – bigger than his winning margin from Saturday’s race – before easing off over the closing stages.
The Spanish rider also becomes the second rider to take a clean sweep of wins on his World Superbike debut round after John Kocinski achieved the feat at Misano in 1996.
Behind the Bautista domination, Rea saw off Kawasaki team-mate Leon Haslam to lockout a hat-trick of second places at Phillip Island with the pair contesting a fierce but fair race-long battle.
Michael van der Mark won the Yamaha battle with a last-lap pass on GRT Yamaha’s Marco Melandri with the Italian rider slipping to sixth place behind Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes who profited from his rival’s tyre life drop.
5774263478001
Chaz Davies produced a recovery ride having started a lowly 16th to reach seventh place by the chequered flag for the factory Ducati team, albeit almost 27 seconds off team-mate Bautista, but ahead of GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese in eighth place.
Eugene Laverty recovered from his own mid-race drop to take ninth place for Go Eleven Ducati with Moriwaki Althea Honda’s Leon Camier rounding out the top 10.
Leandro Mercado shook off a sprint race crash to finish 11th for Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki while Markus Reiterberger snuck past BMW team-mate Tom Sykes in the fight for 12th place.
Jordi Torres (Pedercini Kawasaki) and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda) rounded out the points places with Michael Ruben Rinaldi finishing one lap down after pitting mid-race for Barni Ducati.
Toprak Razgatlioglu was forced to retire for Turkish Puccetti Kawasaki, along with wildcard Troy Herfoss, while Alessandro Delbianco crashed out on the opening lap.
