The Spanish Álvaro Bautista (Ducati), current Superbike world champion, was unstoppable at the start of the season at Phillip Island (Australia) after winning both races and superpole. With this magical start, he adds eight wins in his WorldSBK career, a new record for a rider on this stage.
This is the fifth hat-trick for the Talavera rider, the second in Australia after the one achieved in 2019, something that a WorldSBK rider had never achieved before.
Bautista earned the right to start in the best position by winning superpole, to dominate from start to finish in Race 2 and arrive at the finish line 6.191 seconds ahead of his teammate, the Italian Michael Rinaldi. Third place went to the Italian Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha) 9.099 seconds behind the man from Talavera.
Northern Ireland's Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) had trouble keeping up with the pace of the race, especially in the last few laps, and finished in eighth position, and the Turkish Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) fared worse, who crashed when the British rider Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) lost control with six laps to go and the Turk was unable to dodge.
Great race for the Valencian Iker Lecuona who finished in sixth place, overtaking Rea in the last few laps and eleventh position for the also Spanish Xavi Vierge (Honda).
Bautista after the 'hat trick' he achieved leaves Phillip Island as the leader of the World Cup with a considerable advantage, accumulating 62 points, to 34 for Locatelli and 31 for Rea. Razgatlioglu appears in sixth position with 23 and Lecuona in seventh with 22.
Next weekend Indonesia and the Mandalika circuit will once again put the superbike riders to the test.
