2025 Australian World Superbike: Race 1 as it happened
Live coverage from Race 1 at this weekend's Australian World Superbike round.
The 2025 WorldSBK season kicks off this weekend with the Australian World Superbike round from Phillip Island.
Race 1 is set to get underway at 16:00 local time. Nicolo Bulega starts from pole position with reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu and Go Eleven Ducati's Andrea Iannone joining him on the front row.
There will be a mandatory pit stop on lap 10.
It's victory for Nicolo Bulega in WorldSBK Race 1 at Phillip Island, the Italian repeating his feat from 12 months ago.
Razgatlioglu just holds on from Bautista, who ends up 0.297s behind the reigning champion at the line.
Petrucci takes fourth, Redding fifth, Iannone sixth.
Still six seconds for Bulega, and half-a-second between Razgatlioglu and Bautista as we enter the final lap.
Petrucci up to third now ahead of Redding, and Bautista has got the gap to Razgatlioglu down to 0.6s. Only two laps to go now, though.
Redding now dropping off Bautista and Petrucci is starting to put the pressure on for third place.
Bautista is sort of threatening a run at Razgatlioglu, but th gap is still over one second for now. Redding, Petrucci, and Iannone still there with the #19, too.
Just to clarify, that's a 0.6-second penalty for Lowes.
Alex Lowes has been handed a penalty for exceeding the pit intervention time. That will be applied post-race.
Razgatlioglu 6.5s adrift of Bulega but also has pulled away to 1.5s clear of Bautista in third.
Gardner is out and it looks like a fairly major technical problem on the front straight. A lot of smoke, possibly a red flag coming.
Back to the lead now for Bulega as the remainder of the field stop. Razgatlioglu second and Bautista 0.8s further back in third.
Razgatlioglu rejoins ahead of Bautista who is right alongside Redding and Petrucci ad he rejoins.
Alex Lowes now leads having not yet stopped.
Bulega back out comfortably ahead of the rest of the riders who stopped. Petrucci, Bautista, and Iannone behind him.
Razgatlioglu and Redding now in the pits on lap 10.
Bulega into the pits on the first opportunity for his tyre change. Bautista in, too, so it's now Razgatlioglu who leads from Redding.
Van der Mark has crashed at turn one. Never a small one there but he was able to get back to his feet.
Petrucci lost out on that lap to Razgatlioglu and van der Mark. Over 6s now for Bulega over Bautista.
Gerloff is out having previously run on at turn four and dropped to last behind Gardner.
Razgatlioglu has fallen back to fifth on this lap after running wide at turn one. Bautista now second from Redding and Petrucci.
Over five seconds now for Bulega and we're halfway to the pit stop window.
The battle for second is pretty electric, with Razgatlioglu, Redding, Bautista, and Petrucci all there.
Bulega now leads by over three seconds. Bautista now back up to third place.
Iannone still going in ninth for now.
Iannone sat up at turn three but is back up to speed. His issue backed the pack up behind him, now Bautista is back to fifth behind Razgatlioglu, Petrucci, and Redding.
Bulega leads the opening lap by 0.5s from Iannone, Razgatlioglu a second back in third, and loses out to Bautista into turn one.
Remy Gardner has crashed at turn four on lap one. He's back up and has remounted.
It's lights out in Phillip Island and Race 1 is underway. It's Bulega who makes the holeshot from Iannone and Bautista, Razgatlioglu back to fourth at turn one.
The riders are off on their warm-up lap ahead of Race 1 here in Phillip Island.
It'll be a 20-lap race once they get back with an enforced pit stop on either lap nine, 10, or 11. Riders must not complete more than 11 laps on one tyre.
The only Ducatis not on the front two rows are Sam Lowes in 11th, and the rookies Yari Montella (13th) and Ryan Vickers (16th); for Vickers, this week has been his first time riding at Phillip Island.
