Phillip Island World Superbike Race (1) Results: Bautista beats Rea to victory
Alvaro Bautista gets his World Superbike title defence off to the perfect start after dominating Race 1 in wet conditions.
After rain threatened to fall during Superpole, Race 1 eventually got underway in full wet conditions as Toprak Razgatlioglu started from pole.
As the lights went out it was Bautista who made the best start as he immediately took the lead from the Yamaha rider.
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Following Bautista through was Jonathan Rea before the Kawasaki rider made his move for the lead at turn one.
Contact was made between Razgatlioglu and Alex Lowes, as the former was struggling to get up to pace.
Turn four was the scene of contact between both riders as Razgatlioglu closed the door on Lowes on corner exit.
There was an early crash for Michael Van Der Mark as the BMW rider suffered a violent highside on lap two.
Starting to find his feet in the tricky conditions, Razgatlioglu took back third spot from Lowes at the start of lap five after out-braking the British rider on the run to turn one.
| 2023 World Superbike Phillip Island, Australia - Race (1) Results | ||||
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time |
| 1 | Alvaro Bautista | SPA | Aruba.It Racing Ducati | 22 Laps |
| 2 | Jonathan Rea | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | +3.471s |
| 3 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | TUR | PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK | +6.168s |
| 4 | Andrea Locatelli | ITA | PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK | +16.789s |
| 5 | Axel Bassani | ITA | Motocorsa Ducati | +20.918s |
| 6 | Iker Lecuona | SPA | Team HRC WorldSBK | +27.015s |
| 7 | Danilo Petrucci | ITA | Barni Spark Ducati Team | +30.383s |
| 8 | Xavi Vierge | SPA | Team HRC WorldSBK | +30.625s |
| 9 | Scott Redding | GBR | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | +37.447s |
| 10 | Garrett Gerloff | USA | Bonovo Action BMW | +42.591s |
| 11 | Philipp Oettl | GER | GoEleven Ducati | +44.142s |
| 12 | Remy Gardner | AUS | GRT Yamaha | +48.833s |
| 13 | Dominique Aegerter | SWI | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team | +51.617s |
| 14 | Michael Rinaldi | ITA | Aruba.It Racing Ducati | +55.010s |
| 15 | Hafizh Syahrin | MAL | MIE Honda Racing | +1'15.223s |
| 16 | Eric Granado | BRA | MIE Honda Racing | +1'17.459s |
| 17 | Lorenzo Baldassarri | ITA | GMT94 Yamaha | +1'20.226s |
| 18 | Loris Baz | FRA | Bonovo Action BMW | +1 Lap |
| 19 | Tom Sykes | GBR | Puccetti Kawasaki | DNF |
| 20 | Alex Lowes | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | DNF |
| 21 | Oliver Konig | CZE | Orelac Racing Kawasaki | DNF |
| 22 | Michael Van Der Mark | NED | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | DNF |
After extending his lead to 1.6 seconds, Rea started to lose ground as Bautista set his fastest lap of the race on lap five.
Bautista took six tenths out of Rea in the opening few sectors of the lap before coming across the start-finish line 0.7s down.
With Bautista in touching distance of the race lead, Razgatlioglu was the rider to watch as he began closing in on the top two by over half a second.
Bautista then caught Rea by surprise as he took the race lead with a move at ‘Stoner corner’ on lap ten.
Now in the lead and pushing on the pace, Bautista suffered a big moment at turn eight as he nearly came unstuck in the same way as Van Der Mark.
Following his close moment, Bautista managed to settle into his rhythm once again as he started extending his lead to nearly a second.
With eight laps to go there was a change for P4 as Lowes crashed out of the race at turn two.
After seeing Bautista suffer a moment a few laps ago, Rea then followed suit as the rear of his ZX-10RR came around on the exit of turn ten.
Rea managed to avoid a crash although he lost a few tenths which eliminated him from contention.
Remaining World Superbike weekend Schedule (UK time)
Sunday
Warm-up - 23:30-23:45
Superpole Race - 02:00
Race 2 - 05:00
