Bautista Wins Final Race
A red flag stoppage after a two rider crash saw Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) just ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) to take his 16th and final race win of his championship winning season.
L-R: Rea, Bautista, and Lowes
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) had passed Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) in the race and in doing so he scored a podium finish at the red flag, which brought out the chequered flag on the year.
It was an unfortunate end to the final WorldSBK race of 2022 as this was Eugene Laverty’s farewell race to the category and he was one of the riders who fell in the red flag incident, suffering a pelvic injury. He was transported to hospital by helicopter for further assessments.
Alvaro Bautista leads in Race 2
Behind the top four riders, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) beat Alex Lowes to overall fifth place in the championship by two points after finishing fifth in the race.
Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) accidentally found a new set-up possibility in the wet and dry race one on Saturday and used it in the shortened final race to finish sixth.
Toprak Razgatlioglu waves goodbye to P.I and 2022
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) had another disappointing PI race but finished fourth in the championship overall.
Philipp Öttl (Team GoEleven Ducati), super-sub Tetsuta Nagashima (HRC Honda) and finally Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) completed the top 10 in the last race of 2022.
Alvaro Bautista
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) and Xavi Vierge (HRC Honda) crashed out for the race.
In the final Championship points Bautista ended his year with a walloping 601, Razgatlioglu 529, Rea 502, Rinaldi 293, Locatelli 274 and Lowes 272. Top Independent rider of 2022, Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Ducati) was seventh overall, with 244 ‘real’ championship points.
Words: Gordon Ritchie
Pics: Gold&Goose