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Jamie Klein

Barcelona WSBK: Bautista completes treble win on home turf

Starting from pole this time following his win in the morning's Superpole race, Ducati rider Bautista jumped into an early lead and was never threatened throughout the 20-lap race as he swept to his first triple WSBK victory since the 2019 Aragon round by a margin of 8.1 seconds.

With teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi making it a Ducati 1-2 for the first time this year, it gives Bautista a comfortable 59-point lead at the head of the standings heading into the final four events of the season.

With Bautista untouchable at the head of the field, the fight for second between Rinaldi, Jonathan Rea's Kawasaki, Toprak Razgatlioglu's Yamaha and Axel Bassani's Motocorsa Ducati provided the bulk of the intrigue.

Rinaldi fended off several attacks from Rea in the early stages before Bassani made it an all-Ducati top three at the start of the fifth lap.

Two laps later, Bassani cleared the works V4 R of countryman Rinaldi, but the satellite bike didn't have the pace to keep the runner-up spot and on lap 11 he slipped back behind Rinaldi, who had to fight back from briefly losing third to Rea.

At the same time Rea ran wide at Turn 1 and slipped to fifth behind Razgatlioglu, but on lap 14 the six-time champion used a double slipstream from both Razgatlioglu and Bassani approaching Turn 1 to move back into third in one fell swoop.

Two laps later, Rea undid his hard work with another unforced error, this time at Turn 7, allowing Razgatlioglu through into third place, although there was nothing he could do about Rinaldi in second.

Rea finally finished fourth, slipping 67 points behind Bautista in the championship, while Bassani was a distant fifth.

Xavi Vierge led the Honda charge in sixth place, as Race 1 poleman Iker Lecuona concluded a disappointing weekend in eighth on the other factory Fireblade behind the Go Eleven Ducati of Philipp Oettl.

Loris Baz was ninth on the best of the BMWs, while Roberto Tamburini scored his best result of the year on the Motoxracing Yamaha with a late charge up the order to 10th place.

Several notable names crashed out of what turned into a fairly attritional race in the Spanish heat.

Front-row starter Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) went down at Turn 10 on the opening lap, while just corners later Scott Redding also suffered a high-speed incident at the final corner on his BMW.

Redding was taken to the medical centre for checks but escaped with a bruised chest.

On lap four, Yamaha's Andrea Locatelli likewise crashed at Turn 10, albeit the Italian continued to finish out of the points in 16th.

Garrett Gerloff concluded a weekend that yielded his first podium finish of the season with a crash at Turn 2 on the GRT Yamaha.

Barcelona World Superbike - Race 2 results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 20  
2 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 20 8.103
3 1 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 20 9.090
4 65 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 20 10.210
5 47 Italy Axel Bassani Ducati 20 15.677
6 97 Spain Xavi Vierge Honda 20 20.320
7 5 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 20 33.622
8 7 Spain Iker Lecuona Honda 20 35.008
9 76 France Loris Baz BMW 20 35.092
10 2 Italy Roberto Tamburini Yamaha 20 40.108
11 29 San Marino Luca Bernardi Ducati 20 42.746
12 44 France Lucas Mahias Kawasaki 20 43.165
13 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark BMW 20 46.197
14 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty BMW 20 46.420
15 3 Japan Kohta Nozane Yamaha 20 48.365
16 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 20 50.985
17 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado Honda 20 54.132
18 52 Czech Republic Oliver Konig Kawasaki 20 1'12.447
  99 Oscar Gutierrez Kawasaki 13  
  31 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 11  
  23 France Christophe Ponsson Yamaha 4  
  22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 0  
  45 United Kingdom Scott Redding BMW 0  
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