Alvaro Bautista and Aruba.it Return in Top Form with Hat Trick Victory

Defending champion Alvaro Bautista, racer for Aruba.it Racing Ducati team  wasted no time setting the tone for the 2023 WSBK Season. Bautista dominated the competition in wet condition in race one. After starting from P2 Bautista was able to overtake pole sitter Toprak Razgatlioglu on the start. From this point on Razgatlioglu started to fall behind and the race soon became a head to head battle between Bautista and rival Jonathan Rea of Kawasaki Racing WSBK. Ultimately Bautista was able to hold off Rea in a wet weather racing masterclass of defense and race craft. 

Race two is where it all started to go wrong for Jonathan Rea. Falling off pace and trickling down the order Rea finished P7 while Bautista secured another victory which increased the season point deficit for Rea to 31 points on the season. Rea will need to bounce back in Indonesia to stand a chance at maintain championship hopes this season. With Bautista winning both races and Superpole it is clear he has no intention of slowing down from where he left off in 2022. Aruba.it Racing Ducati teammate Michael Rinaldi took P2 in Race two and Superpole which helped maximize points for the Aruba.it camp after Rinaldi finished P14 in disappoint race one.

The rest of the field had no answers for Aruba.it Racing Ducati this weekend and they will all need a strong showing at Round 2 in Indonesia if they want to stay in the title fight.

Top 10 Race One Results

Top 10 Race Two Results