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Jerez WSBK: Van der Mark wins red-flagged race, Bautista crashes

Yamaha rider Michael van der Mark took his first win of the World Superbike season in a red-flagged final race at Jerez, as Alvaro Bautista crashed on the second lap.

Michael van der Mark, Pata Yamaha

Michael van der Mark, Pata Yamaha

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Ducati rider Bautista, who dominated the first two races of the Jerez weekend, lost the lead to Marco Melandri's GRT Yamaha at the start but retook the position at Turn 5.

But Bautista ended up crashing at the first corner next time around, giving the lead to his main title rival Jonathan Rea.

Bautista's crash was followed by a duel between Rea and van der Mark, who was all over the Kawasaki rider.

After an overtake at Turn 6 was quickly countered by Rea, van der Mark spent several laps in second before making another move on lap 7.

Rea then also put pressure on van der Mark, the duo separated by less than half a second for eight laps. But Rea started to struggle in the lattet stages and van der Mark built a lead of two seconds in just two laps.

Van der Mark rode on his own for the rest of the race, which was shortened by two laps due to a red flag coming out after Ryuichi Kiyonari crashed at Turn 11, throwing lots of gravel on track.

The Dutchman secured his third WSBK win, his first since his Donington Park double last year.

Puccetti Kawasaki's Toprak Razgatlioglu couldn't fight for the win but comfortably scored the second podium finish of his campaign in third.

His top-three finish was secured when Melandri and Chaz Davies, the two riders he was riding with early on, crashed.

Melandri divebombed on the inside of Ducati rider Davies at the fast Turn 5 right-hander, forcing both of them off-track.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) took his best finish of the season in fourth, closely followed by Leon Haslam (Kawasaki) and Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha).

Tom Sykes (BMW) was seventh, holding off Jordi Torres (Pedercini Kawasaki), while the top 10 was completed by Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha) and British Superbike regular Tommy Bridewell (GoEleven Ducati).

Alex Lowes (Yamaha) crashed two corners into the race but rejoined the track and finished 14th, two laps down.

Despite his first retirement of the season, Bautista still maintains a sizable 41-point lead over Rea in the standings.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 18
2 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 18 2.931
3 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Kawasaki 18 8.201
4 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 18 13.483
5 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Kawasaki 18 13.698
6 11 Germany Sandro Cortese
Yamaha 18 14.339
7 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 18 15.113
8 81 Spain Jordi Torres
Kawasaki 18 16.070
9 76 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 18 20.778
10 46 United Kingdom Tommy Bridewell
Ducati 18 23.381
11 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Kawasaki 18 25.014
12 28 Germany Markus Reiterberger
BMW 18 29.328
13 72 Japan Yuki Takahashi
Honda 18 29.923
14 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Yamaha 16 2 Laps
23 Japan Ryuichi Kiyonari
Honda 19
19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Ducati 9 9 Laps
52 Italy Alessandro Del Bianco
Honda 7 11 Laps
33 Italy Marco Melandri
Yamaha 5 13 Laps
7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 5 13 Laps

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Edition

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