Alvaro Bautista Smashes It On New Ducati

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) scored a stunning race victory in his first ever WorldSBK outing, after running away from the entire field to win by 14.983 seconds, having held a lead of over 16 seconds with one lap to go. He was the first WorldSBK rookie to win his first race since Max Biaggi on a Suzuki in 2007.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) battled it out for the other podium places for some time, after long-time second place rider Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team) crashed out, then restarted to finish 15^th.

Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) came through from ninth place to third, and the leading Yamaha man, as Lowes ended up fourth, but only just, after a great last lap battle.

Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) placed fifth, breaking away from a battle behind between Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). Razgatlioglu took sixth from Sykes, by 0.2 of a second.

Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) was eighth in his WorldSBK debut, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team Ducati) ninth and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) went from 16^th on the grid to tenth.

Leon Camier (Moriwaki-Althea Honda Racing Team) crashed out.

Now on Sunday there will be a sprint race at noon, then a second full-length race in the afternoon, again at 3pm.