The Championship leader extended his lead over both Razgatlioglu and Rea after a dramatic Race 1 in Argentina. Bautista then fended off Razgatlioglu for a Race 2 win, further extending his Championship lead to 82 points! The Ducati rider now has one hand on the title…
Race One
Race 1 in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship had huge implications in the title fight at the Circuito San Juan Villicum during the Motul Argentinean Round, as Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) claimed a commanding victory in Argentina while title rival Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) finished in 15th place after the reigning Championship had an opening-lap crash as he looked to pass Bautista.
With Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) taking the lead down the long back straight, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) tried to respond to lead into the infield section but lost the front of the bike and went crashing into the gravel. Razgatlioglu was able to re-join but was in last place. The incident cost Bautista time as he dropped back down to fourth place, behind Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) and iker Lecuona (Team HRC).
Bautista picked off Lecuona on Lap 4 to move into the podium places and only took two more laps to move into the lead of the race as he passed both Bassani and Rea on the back straight, after Bassani made a move for the lead on the second lap. Bautista was able to extend his lead at the front of the field for his 13th win of the season. Bautista was the only rider from the top three in the Championship to use the SCX tyre, with Rea and Razgatlioglu using the SC0. Victory also gave Bautista the 52nd podium of his WorldSBK career and the 25th of 2022.
Behind him, Bassani and Rea continued to fight it out for third place with the pair often inseparable throughout the lap. Rea made a move on Lap 8 to move into second place but Bassani was able to respond the following lap down the back straight while, on Lap 11, the pair went elbow to elbow throughout the final sector of the lap and down into Turn 1 on Lap 12; Bassani just holding on in that battle. The pair battled hard through sector four on Lap 18 with Rea making a move at Turn 15 and Bassani responding into Turn 16. On the run down to Turn 1, Rea outbraked Bassani into Turn 1 to stay ahead before fending off the Italian rider at the end of the back straight, going on to take second place ahead of Bassani in third. Rea’s second place was the 237th podium of his career and Kawasaki’s 395th race on the podium, while Bassani took his fourth podium and put Italy on the verge of a milestone having taken 399 podiums to date.
Lecuona was another who used the SCX tyre to take a strong result as he took fourth place after running in the podium places in the closing stages of the race, although he was unable to close the gap to the fighting Rea and Bassani ahead of him. He was ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in fifth place, with three Ducatis in the top five, finishing around two seconds back from Lecuona at the end of the 21-lap race. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) took sixth place as he made sure Kawasaki had two bikes inside the top six.
There was a three-rider fight for seventh place with Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) scrapping it out. It was Redding who took seventh place at the end of the race as he fended off the chasing Locatelli and Vierge, with the trio separated by around one second. On the last lap, Locatelli made a move on Vierge to take eighth place and demoted the Spanish rookie to ninth. Dutch rider Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) claimed tenth place and rounded out the top ten.
French rider Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) took 11th spot after a strong race from the French rider, finishing 1.5s clear of Xavi Fores (BARNI Spark Racing Team) who took points on his return to the Championship with 12th place. Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) dropped down outside the points during the race but battled back to take 13th spot, ahead of Eugene Laverty (Bonovo Action BMW) in 14th place. Razgatlioglu showed enough pace to take home a single point after fighting back, passing Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) on the final lap. Baz had been running in the points but ran wide on Lap 16 at the end of the back straight.
German rookie Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) took 17th place after he was given a three-place grid penalty for Race 1 for slow riding in Free Practice 2, with Oettl fending off the Moto2™-bound Kohta Nozane (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) in 18th place. Rookie Oliver Konig (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) took 19th place ahead of stand-in rider Maximilian Scheib (MIE Racing Honda Team) in 20th and Argentinean Marco Solorza (TPR Team Pedercini Racing) in 21st on his return to the Championship.
Home hero Leandro Mercado (MIE Racing Honda Team) was the first retirement of the race after the Argentinean rider had a Turn 14 crash on Lap 8. Mercado was taken to the medical centre for a check-up following the crash.
WorldSBK Race One Argentina Podium (Full Results Here)
1 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
2 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +5.141s
3 Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) +6.689s
Tissot Superpole Race
The Tissot Superpole Race for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship was ten laps of thrilling drama at the Circuito San Juan Villicum for the Motul Argentinean Round, as Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) claimed a hard-fought victory after a last-lap battle with Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in the ten-lap race. The pair were inseparable during the final few laps with Razgatlioglu taking victory by 0.613s.
Razgatlioglu took advantage of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) running wide at Turn 1 when flicking from second to first gear and finding neutral at the start of Lap 6 to move into the lead of the race but had Bautista directly behind him. At Turn 8, Bautista made a move on Lap 8, but the reigning Champion responded instantly. A lap later and Bautista made a move at Turn 8, which put Razgatlioglu second, but he responded at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 10 to re-take the lead. On the final lap, Bautista made the same move at the same corner which forced Razgatlioglu to respond into Turn 9 and he did so, running the pair a little bit wide but staying on the track before holding on to take victory. It was a similar move that he tried to make in Race 1 on Saturday which ended up with him in the gravel; Razgatlioglu able to make it work on Sunday.
Razgatlioglu’s 29th career victory means he will line up from pole position for Race 2 this afternoon, with Bautista in second and Rea in third. Second was Bautista’s 53rd podium and the 170th for Spain while Rea took third place for his 238th career podium on his 230th start for Kawasaki. Rea also set the fastest lap in the race, making more history as he became the first rider to set 100 fastest laps in WorldSBK races.
Italian rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) took fourth place in the dramatic race as he came out on top in a three-rider fight for fourth place. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was fifth ahead of Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) in sixth place. The three riders were more than three seconds down on Rea in third but, at the end of the race, were separated by just over a second.
Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) will lead off the third row as he battled back to take seventh spot in the Superpole Race, finishing around two seconds clear of eighth-placed Xavi Vierge (Team HRC). Vierge was the highest-placed rider to use Pirelli’s SCQ tyre and battled his way into the top nine, finishing just 0.076s ahead of Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) who took the final place on row three for Race 2. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) just missed out on a spot in the top nine as he finished tenth, just 0.155s behind Baz.
WorldSBK Argentina Tissot Superpole Race Podium (Full Results Here)
1 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK)
2 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.613s
3 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.856s
Race Two
A dramatic start to Race 2 for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship set the tone for the race at the Circuito San Juan Villicum with Spanish rider Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) took his second victory of the Motul Argentinean Round. The Spanish rider heads into the penultimate round of the season with an 82-point lead in the Championship standings, with Bautista able to take his first WorldSBK title next time out in Indonesia after beating Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) in Race 2.
Bautista had to fight his way back through the field after a poor start, which dropped him down to fifth place, and he picked off his rivals in the early stages of the race. On Lap 4, the Spanish rider made a move on second-placed Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) into Turn 8 before making a similar move on teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) a lap later. At the same time, Razgatlioglu who, like Bautista, lost out on the opening laps, was following Bautista through, with Razgatlioglu passing Lowes at Turn 10 on Lap 4 and then Rinaldi at Turn 1 on Lap 6.
Despite Razgatlioglu closing the gap throughout most of the lap to Bautista, the Spanish rider extended his lead down the long back straight and eventually pulled out a gap of around three seconds to the reigning Champion. Bautista’s victory gave him his 14th of his 2022 campaign and the 30th in WorldSBK, while it was also his 54th podium in WorldSBK. It was also Ducati’s 390th victory in the Championship. Razgatlioglu took his 77th career podium with second place and the 24th of his career, with Razgatlioglu now 83 points back from Bautista.
The battle for the podium places was between Lowes and teammate Jonathan Rea after the six-time Champion ran wide a couple of times in the early stages. Rea looked to pass Rinaldi at Turn 9 on Lap 2, which allowed Lowes through, before he ran wide again at the next corner and dropped down to sixth place. Rea battled his way past Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) at Turn 10 on Lap 6 to move into fifth before both Lowes and Rea passed Rinaldi on Lap 7. For the next 11 laps, Lowes was able to stay ahead of his teammate but Rea made the move at Turn 8 on Lap 18 to take third place for his 239th WorldSBK podium.
Lowes took fourth place, dropping around two seconds behind his teammate in the closing stages, although Lowes did have a four second margin to Rinaldi in fifth. Rinaldi was one rider who opted to use Pirelli’s SC0 tyre with most of the field using the SCX tyres. Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) put four manufacturers inside the top six as he took sixth place, with Rinaldi, Vierge and Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) in a three-way fight for fifth place. Lecuona finished two tenths behind teammate Vierge, who was seven tenths behind Rinaldi.
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) leaves Argentina with eighth place after a battle with Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in ninth place; the pair were separated by just one second at the end of the race. Redding led a trio of BMW riders as he finished in eighth place, with teammate Michael van der Mark in tenth, around one second down on teammate Redding, with Eugene Laverty (Bonovo Action BMW) in 11th; Laverty was the highest-placed Independent rider.
Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was around two seconds back from Laverty as he took 12th place, while he had a more than one second margin to the returning Xavi Fores (BARNI Spark Racing Team). Fores marked his return to WorldSBK with three consistent results, taking 12th in Race 1 and the Tissot Superpole Race and 13th in Race 2. Rookie Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) was 14th ahead of Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who rounded out the points-paying positions.
Japanese rider Kohta Nozane (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) finished in 16th place and missed out on a point by just over a second, while Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) was 17th. Baz battled back from the rear of the field after he came off his bike following a Lap 2 collision with Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) at Turn 12. The incident was investigated by the FIM WorldSBK Stewards with Bassani deemed at fault, with the Italian penalised with a Long Lap Penalty. However, for not taking this in time, Bassani was given a second Long Lap Penalty before he was given a ride through penalty for not taking his Long Lap Penalties on time. Bassani was classified in 20th place.
Czech rider Oliver Konig (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) took 18th place ahead of Leandro Mercado (MIE Racing Honda), with the Argentinean rider leaving his home round without points. Bassani was in 20th place ahead of Maximilian Scheib (MIE Racing Honda Team) and Marco Solorza (TPR Team Pedercini Racing) who was the last of the 22-strong field.
WorldSBK Argentina Race Two Podium (Full Results Here)
1 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
2 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +3.389s
3 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +9.784s
Championship Standings After Argentina (Full Standings Here)
1 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 507 points
2 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) 425
3 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 409
