Reigning Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu was untouchable in Race 1 as he won WorldSBK’s 900th race after he also won the Championship’s 800th race. Winning all three races at The WorldSBK Mandalika round was not enough for Toprak, as Alvaro Bautista secured the championship in Race Two!
Race One
As the lights went out for WorldSBK’s 900th race, all three in the top three of Championship standings got a good started heading into Turn 1 with Razgatlioglu holding onto the lead ahead of teammate Andrea Locatelli, who moved up ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) into second place. Rea was able to pass Locatelli on Lap 2 to move into second place while Bautista, who moved up from fifth on the grid, passed Locatelli to move into third on Lap 3 of 21 at Turn 13.
Razgatlioglu was able to pull out a gap as the others battled past his teammate and soon it was Rea vs Bautista for second place. Bautista made his move through the high-speed right hander of Turn 15 and into the Turn 16 hairpin for second place and soon opened up a gap to Rea who took third place. On Lap 13, Razgatlioglu lost two seconds as he went through the shortcut that starts at Turn 7, with Bautista reducing the gap to one second but, a lap later, Razgatlioglu was able to find half-a-second to extend it back out to 1.5s.
Razgatlioglu carried on extending his gap out over Bautista to four seconds to take his 30th victory of his career in his 90th race for Yamaha as well as his 78th podium in WorldSBK. 28 of Razgatlioglu’s wins have come with Yamaha and, in terms of wins, he becomes the Japanese manufacturer’s most successful rider with 28 wins. With Bautista in second place, taking his 55th podium, Razgatlioglu was able to take five points out of his Championship lead with the Spanish rider leading by 77 points; Bautista will still be able to take the title on Sunday in Indonesia. Rea, mathematically out of title contention as he lost ground to Bautista with third place, took his 240th WorldSBK podium. With 900 WorldSBK races now run, Rea has stood on the podium in 26% of WorldSBK’s races.
There was a fierce battle for fourth place between Locatelli and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) with Rinaldi making a pass on Locatelli to move into fourth place on Lap 16 but, a lap later, ran wide at Turn 16 which allowed Locatelli back through to take fourth and his first top-five finish since Estoril. Rinaldi did fight from ninth on the grid to take fifth place, dropping back to around four seconds behind Locatelli at the end of the race. Xavi Vierge (Team HRC), the sole Team HRC rider in Race 1, took sixth place after he fended off Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) with the American taking seventh place.
Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) took eighth place after an up-and-down 21 laps. He had moved into the top five in the early stages but he had a moment at Turn 15 and into Turn 16 which dropped him down the order before he fought back for eighth place. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was ninth, three tenths behind Bassani, while he had an eight second margin to Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) rounded out the top ten.
Baz had to fend off a charging Xavi Fores (BARNI Spark Racing Team) to take his place in the top ten with Fores in 11th place. Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was 12th after he dropped down the order in the early stages. Redding had a few off-track excursions during the race and was running in the final positions but was able to fight back to take 12th spot. Hafizh Syahrin (MIE Racing Honda Team) returned to WorldSBK action after missing Argentina through illness and injury and he took points on his return with 13th, finishing ahead of Eugene Laverty (Bonovo Action BMW) and Kohta Nozane (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) who rounded out the points-paying positions; Nozane taking his first points since Race 2 in Barcelona. Oliver Konig (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) was the last classified rider in 16th place.
WorldSBK Mandalika Race One Podium (Full Results here)
1 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK)
2 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +4.324s
3 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +11.855s
Tissot Superpole Race
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) claimed a hard-fought victory over Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and kept his Championship hopes alive ahead of Race 2 on Sunday.
Razgatlioglu led from pole position into Turn 1 but, unlike in Race 1 yesterday, was unable to pull a gap in the early stages of the race. He fell behind Rea on Lap 3 when the six-time Champion passed him through Turn 12 to move into the lead with Rea aiming to end his win drought. However, Razgatlioglu responded on Lap 7 at Turn 10, after attempting the move on several occasions, to re-gain the lead. He then held on to take his second victory of the weekend and his 31st win in WorldSBK. Rea’s second place was his 241st in WorldSBK and Kawasaki’s 399th race on the podium. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) ended his podium drought, which started at the Dutch Round, with third place to take his sixth podium but also Italy’s 400th in WorldSBK history.
Locatelli had to fend off a charging Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) to claim his first podium in 203 days, with the Championship leader in fourth place. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) took fifth place as he was crowned the Best Independent Rider for the 2022 season, and he will start alongside Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) on the second row.
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) will start from the front of row three after he took seventh place, missing out on a second row start by just six tenths of a second. Lowes also had to resist Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) to take seventh with Rinaldi in eighth, while the sole Team HRC rider on the grid, Xavi Vierge, will start Race 2 from ninth place as he took ninth in the Superpole Race.
WorldSBK Mandalika Tissot Superpole Race Podium (Full Results Here)
1 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK)
2 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.586s
3 Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +1.235s
Race Two
The fight for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship crown came to a thrilling conclusion at the Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit as Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) took the title after finishing in second place in Race 2 during the Pirelli Indonesian Round. Despite Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) claiming a hat-trick in Indonesia with victory in Race 2, Bautista’s second-place finish was enough for the Spanish rider to take the Championship with a round to spare.
Bautista headed into Race 2 knowing a podium finish would secure him the title or losing less than nine points to Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and he did enough to secure to take his first title in WorldSBK. In doing so, he becomes the third different rider from a third different manufacturer in three seasons to claim the title, after Razgatlioglu and Yamaha in 2021 and Rea and Kawasaki in 2020.
The fight for the Championship title also turned out to be the fight for victory in Indonesia, with Razgatlioglu moving into the lead of the race on Lap 6 as he passed Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) at Turn 10 after Rea moved into the lead in the opening stages of the race. With Bautista in third at this point, behind Rea, he instantly latched onto the back of the six-time Champion and went through on Rea at Turn 10 on Lap 7 as he took advantage of Rea running onto the kerbs through Turns 8 and 9.
The duo went head-to-head in the final third of the race to claim victory, which allowed Rea to close back in on Bautista and Razgatlioglu. Bautista closed the gap before the battle ignited on Lap 14. Bautista made a move at Turn 1 to move into the lead as he looked to win the Championship with a victory, before Razgatlioglu responded into Turn 10. Through Turns 14 and 15, Bautista made a stunning move for the lead. He remained there for a short while but Razgatlioglu responded at Turn 10 on Lap 16, before extending his lead to over one second for victory with Bautista in second.
Razgatlioglu’s victory gave him his 32nd WorldSBK win and his 14th of the year which puts him level on wins for a season for Yamaha with 2009 Champion Ben Spies, while Alvaro Bautista’s Championship-winning second place was his 56th podium in WorldSBK including the 29th of his 2022 campaign. Bautista winning the title also meant it became the first time in history that Ducati claimed both the WorldSBK and MotoGP Riders’ Championships in the same season.
Rea found himself in fourth place, behind Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) but made a move on Lap 11 at Turn 12 to move back into the podium places before pulling out a gap over Bassani, coming home to take third place for his 200th podium with Kawasaki, while it was also Kawasaki’s 400th race on the podium. Bassani dropped behind Rea and ended up in a battle with Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) for fourth place. It would be Locatelli who claimed fourth place after a strong weekend for the Italian, finishing just six tenths ahead of Bassani in fifth place; in the Tissot Superpole Race, Bassani was crowned the Best Independent Rider for 2022.
Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) claimed sixth place ahead of Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) in seventh place with all five manufacturers in the top seven positions in Race 2. Redding was four seconds down on Bassani after he had a run off the track at Turn 16 on Lap 6 but he fought back to take sixth ahead of Vierge. American star Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) took eighth spot, two seconds behind Vierge, ahead of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK); Lowes was just four tenths behind Gerloff at the end of the 21-lap race. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) rounded out the top ten.
Xavi Fores’ (BARNI Spark Racing Team) return to WorldSBK and the Barni Ducati team continued with 11th place in Race 2 as he scored more points. He had a late-race fight with Dutch rider Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) with the pair separated by just 0.238s at the end of the race. French rider Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) was 13th, almost 14 seconds down on BMW stablemate van der Mark, while Hafizh Syahrin (MIE Racing Honda Team) and Oliver Konig (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) in 15th; the Czech rider claiming his first point in WorldSBK. Eugene Laverty (Bonovo Action BMW) was 16th, 1.458s down on Konig for a point, while Leandro Mercado (MIE Racing Honda Team) was the last classified rider in 17th place.
Kohta Nozane (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) retired from the race following a crash at Turn 11 on Lap 11, while Kyle Smith’s (TPR Team Pedercini Racing) debut weekend ended with a crash at Turn 7 on Lap 14 which put him out of the race. Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) was declared unfit ahead of Race 2 following a crash earlier in the weekend, with Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) also on the sidelines after he was diagnosed with a right ankle sprain following an FP3 crash on Saturday.
WorldSBK Mandalika Race Two Podium (Full Results Here)
1 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK)
2 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +1.230s
3 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +2.825s
Championship Standings After Mandalika
1 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 553 points
2 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) 487
3 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 279
4 Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 279
