WSBK Portimão Race 2: Álvaro Bautista finally beats Johnny Rea

At the end of the Sprint Race, the starting grid for the Race included Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) on its first row. The second included Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing), Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team). Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha) occupied ninth place on the third row, and Sylvain Barrier twentieth on the seventh row.

The one who made a bad operation was Chaz Davies (Ducati) who only started fourteenth from the middle of the fifth row, penalized for having pushed Bautista the day before. Davies, however, remained in good spirits: “ After the summer break and about two months after my victory at Laguna Seca, I knew the race would be difficult here in Portimão, but the gains in California and the work we did in testing really added some momentum. »

“I feel like the bike is very different now to the one I rode this season and I think our speed is okay. As for past results, this track is not the easiest for me to win, but I am optimistic because the Panigale V4 R behaves better here than the twin ever did. I feel confident, even though Portimão is not an easy track because the bumps and drops create many challenges. »

Before this third Portuguese race took off, we hoped that Johnny Rea would not crush the event again like in the first two races by widening a gap of 3 seconds during the first three laps, before managing this lead until arrival.

When leaving, with a temperature of 30° for the air and 48° (source: Pirelli) for that of the track, in front of 56 spectators (source: Dorna) the driver who made the “holeshot” was Johnny Rea ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu, Alex Lowes, Álvaro Bautista, Leon Haslam, Tom Sykes, Marco Melandri and Loris Baz.

Álvaro Bautista was overtaken by Leon Haslam and Michael van der Mark, ending up fifth. The Spaniard passed the Dutchman again, while Loris Baz overtook Marco Melandri.

Rea was closely followed by the other two Kawasakis of Razgatlioglu and Haslam, followed by the Yamaha of Lowes and the Ducati of Bautista. A group of five stood out slightly, made up of Rea, Razgatlioglu, Haslam, Bautista and Lowes, with van der Mark quite close. Then Baz seventh was at 3.2.

Rea with 17 laps remaining was running in 1'42.6, significantly slower than in race 1 when he was in 1'41. Bautista overtook Haslam to take third position.

Then in the straight Bautista took the lead ahead of Razgatlioglu, Rea, Haslam, Lowes and van der Mark. The pace was frankly not fast (1'42.8 for Bautista). Baz seventh at 3.9 ahead of Davies at 4.7.

Rea regained second place by passing Razgatlioglu. The race was more tactical than pure attack due to the temperature (48° for the track).

Bautista, Rea, distanced the two Yamahas of Lowes by 1.6 and van der Mark by 2.5. Baz followed at 4.6 and Davies at 5.5.

Bautista increased the risk slightly in 1'42.3 and the others seemed to have a little difficulty following. It was true that with his lead in the Championship, Rea could comfortably finish second to move towards the title. Razgatlioglu and Haslam behind him might be hesitant to attack him.

At the halfway mark, Bautista was 0.7 ahead of Rea, 1.4 ahead of Razgatlioglu, 3.3 ahead of Haslam and Lowes, 4.4 ahead of van der Mark and 6.1 ahead of Baz. Chaz Davies left the track and rejoined it in sixteenth position.

Bautista, Rea and Razgatlioglu were riding grouped in 1.4, far ahead of Lowes, Haslam and van der Mark more than 5 seconds behind, on whom Loris Baz was gaining.

With 7 laps to go, Haslam took fourth place from Lowes. But Lowes returned to fourth position, followed by his teammate van der Mark, Haslam and Baz who had returned well. Haslam recovered fifth place ahead of van der Mark and Baz. Loris managed to overtake van der Mark on the last lap!

Bautista finally won ahead of Johnny Rea, whose lead in the Championship increased to 91 points, 9 races from the end. Razgatlioglu finished in a good third position, while after a superb fight for fourth place, Lowes narrowly won ahead of Haslam, ahead of Baz and van der Mark, while Barrier finished eighteenth.

Race 2 results:

Provisional classification of the Superbike World Championship:

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