WorldSBK Barcelona Race 2 Results| Terrific treble puts Bautista on title course

Alvaro Bautista has taken a significant stride towards the 2022 WorldSBK Championship title after completing another extraordinarily dominant victory to complete sweep of the three races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

On a weekend that has seen Bautista lead every racing lap in all three races, the Spaniard made the most of his pole position reward for winning the Superpole Race to get the hole-shot into Turn 1 before immediately pulling clear.

Indeed, though Bautista had the benefit of Michael Ruben Rinaldi performing a perfect rear guard action against title rivals Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea - intentional or otherwise - at no point could any rider live with his crushing pace.

Getting the gap up to ten seconds at one stage, Bautista could afford to take it easier in the closing stages as he completed a perfect race weekend that could go a long way to ensuring the title comes his way over the final four rounds.

If victory was unquestionable, then the fight for the remaining podium positions was more competitive as Rinaldi, Rea, Razgatlioglu and Axel Bassani - belying his 16th place grid position to rattle off a series of aggressive passes in the initial laps - disputed second to fifth.

After a flurry of failed overtakes among the quartet, Bassani carried his momentum all the way up to second position by lap five, leaving Rinaldi and Rea to tussle over third.

However, as had been evident in Race 1, Bassani couldn’t sustain his rapid pace as the tyres began to wane on the Motocorsa Ducati, a drop off that allowed Rinaldi back into second place on lap nine at Turn 1, which in turn prompted Rea to get sucked into missing his braking point and allowing Razgatlioglu up into fourth.

With Bassani becoming something of a roadblock for the title fighting duo, the Italian’s influence on the podium battle ended with seven laps remaining when he was overtaken by Razgatlioglu and Rea, the latter Kawasaki rider making full use of the ‘double slipstream’ to pass both and rise to third.

However, with Rinaldi having since opened up a gap on the trio behind, Rea’s attempts to close the margin led to a wide moment coming into the tricky Turn 7, demoting him back to fifth, even if he quickly recovered fourth from a now struggling Bassani.

While Razgatlioglu took up the chase for second, he was forced to settle for third behind Rinaldi, who completed a first Ducati 1-2 of the season as a fitting toast to his newly renewed contract for 2023.

Having been the form rider coming into the weekend, Razgatlioglu’s third place was the highlight of an otherwise modest weekend, one that leaves him with an uphill task to catch Bautista in the standings.

Indeed, with four rounds and 12 races remaining, Bautista’s lead has grown from 30 points to 59 points over Razgatlioglu, with Rea - who picked up fourth from Bassani in fifth - now trailing some 67 points behind.

A full 20secs back from Bautista, Xavi Vierge secured one of the best results of his rookie campaign in sixth place, ahead of Philipp Oettl, who followed up his top six result in the Superpole Race with another good chunk of points in seventh.

Though the races didn’t quite deliver the results he had hoped for after taking pole position on Saturday, Iker Lecuona can take heart from his pace as he fought back to eighth, ahead of Loris Baz and Roberto Tamburini, the latter equalling his best finish of the year.

Behind them, Luca Bernardi, Lucas Mahias, Michael van der Mark, Eugene Laverty and Kohta Nozane completed the points’ paying positions.

Of those who failed to finish, Alex Lowes - on the podium in the Superpole Race - was an early retirement after sliding off at Turn 10 on lap one, while another of this weekend’s rostrum riders Garrett Gerloff fell at the first corner as he disputed tenth place

However, there was concern for Scott Redding after he suffered a spectacular high-speed crash at Catalunya, the fast final corner leading onto the home straight, on lap one. He has been taken to the medical centre for checks.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Barcelona, Spain | Race 2 Results