Barcelona WSBK: Bautista completes treble win on home turf

Starting from pole this time following his win in the morning's Superpole race, Ducati rider Bautista jumped into an early lead and was never threatened throughout the 20-lap race as he swept to his first triple WSBK victory since the 2019 Aragon round by a margin of 8.1 seconds.

With teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi making it a Ducati 1-2 for the first time this year, it gives Bautista a comfortable 59-point lead at the head of the standings heading into the final four events of the season.

With Bautista untouchable at the head of the field, the fight for second between Rinaldi, Jonathan Rea's Kawasaki, Toprak Razgatlioglu's Yamaha and Axel Bassani's Motocorsa Ducati provided the bulk of the intrigue.

Rinaldi fended off several attacks from Rea in the early stages before Bassani made it an all-Ducati top three at the start of the fifth lap.

Two laps later, Bassani cleared the works V4 R of countryman Rinaldi, but the satellite bike didn't have the pace to keep the runner-up spot and on lap 11 he slipped back behind Rinaldi, who had to fight back from briefly losing third to Rea.

At the same time Rea ran wide at Turn 1 and slipped to fifth behind Razgatlioglu, but on lap 14 the six-time champion used a double slipstream from both Razgatlioglu and Bassani approaching Turn 1 to move back into third in one fell swoop.

Two laps later, Rea undid his hard work with another unforced error, this time at Turn 7, allowing Razgatlioglu through into third place, although there was nothing he could do about Rinaldi in second.

Rea finally finished fourth, slipping 67 points behind Bautista in the championship, while Bassani was a distant fifth.

Xavi Vierge led the Honda charge in sixth place, as Race 1 poleman Iker Lecuona concluded a disappointing weekend in eighth on the other factory Fireblade behind the Go Eleven Ducati of Philipp Oettl.

Loris Baz was ninth on the best of the BMWs, while Roberto Tamburini scored his best result of the year on the Motoxracing Yamaha with a late charge up the order to 10th place.

Several notable names crashed out of what turned into a fairly attritional race in the Spanish heat.

Front-row starter Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) went down at Turn 10 on the opening lap, while just corners later Scott Redding also suffered a high-speed incident at the final corner on his BMW.

Redding was taken to the medical centre for checks but escaped with a bruised chest.

On lap four, Yamaha's Andrea Locatelli likewise crashed at Turn 10, albeit the Italian continued to finish out of the points in 16th.

Garrett Gerloff concluded a weekend that yielded his first podium finish of the season with a crash at Turn 2 on the GRT Yamaha.

Barcelona World Superbike - Race 2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	20
2	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	20	8.103
3	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	20	9.090
4	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	20	10.210
5	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	20	15.677
6	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	20	20.320
7	5	Philipp Oettli	Ducati	20	33.622
8	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	20	35.008
9	76	Loris Baz	BMW	20	35.092
10	2	Roberto Tamburini	Yamaha	20	40.108
11	29	Luca Bernardi	Ducati	20	42.746
12	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	20	43.165
13	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	20	46.197
14	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	20	46.420
15	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	20	48.365
16	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	20	50.985
17	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	20	54.132
18	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	20	1'12.447
	99	Oscar Gutierrez	Kawasaki	13
	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	11
	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	4
	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	0
	45	Scott Redding	BMW	0
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