Bautista blasts clear as Rea fights hard to second
Alvaro Bautista keeps his 100% winning start to the 2019 World Superbike championship going by skating clear of an almighty battle for second place
Full WorldSBK race one results at Aragon
Alvaro Bautista has maintained his 100% winning start to the 2019 World Superbike championship by skating clear of an almighty battle for second place which was won by Jonathan Rea from Chaz Davies.
Pole-sitter Bautista bolted ahead of his rivals at around one second per lap to make his victory charge effectively a non-contest, but the fight for second place raged on the entire race with Rea escaping a final-lap fight from Davies and Eugene Laverty.
With the Ducati riders looking to line-up a back straight sprint on the final lap against Rea on the Kawasaki, Laverty appeared to clip the rear of Davies which sent the Team Go Eleven Ducati rider wide and off track and in the process allowed the reigning world champion to keep hold of second place ahead of Davies.
As Laverty suffered more cruel luck, following his scary brake failure in Thailand, Alex Lowes was promoted to fourth place for Pata Yamaha having been involved in the podium fight until the final few laps.
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Tom Sykes put up a stellar effort on the underpowered BMW to take fifth place ahead of Pata Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark and front-row starter Sandro Cortese on the GRT Yamaha.
Puccetti Kawasaki’s Toprak Razgatlioglu recovered from a poor qualifying to carve up the order to eighth place ahead of the factory Kawasaki of Leon Haslam.
Jordi Torres claimed a top 10 at his home track for Pedercini Kawasaki comfortably ahead of leading Honda Leon Camier who is nursing a knee injury sustained last time out in Thailand.
Marco Melandri had a disappointing race for GRT Yamaha down in 12th place ahead of Barni Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari, while Laverty remounted to take the final point in 15th place.
The race had a hectic start with Markus Reiterberger lining up in the wrong grid slot before clashing with Rea to send the German off before the first turn. Leandro Mercado and Alessandro Delbianco also went off on the opening lap in a separate clash.
