The World SBK championship lands at Donington Park this weekend for round 6 of the season. Alvaro Bautista once again established dominance early winning Race 1. Although it hasn’t been complete dominance this weekend as Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) stole the show in Superpole to set the grid for the Superpole race. Bautista will start from P2 but is well withing striking range to win the Superpole race.
The race 1 win marks Bautista’s 11th straight win this season and 15th overall win in 16 races. Bautista’s lead has now extended to 323 points; 91 points ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon). Razgatlioglu has secured a number of podiums this year but cannot seem to break the pace of the Aruba.it Racing Ducati V4R of Bautista. As we head towards the Superpole race and race two Baustista has the potential to extend his lead to over 100 points on the season.
Honorable mention goes to fellow Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing). Petrucci struggled to get acclimated with his V4R after making the transition from the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship series to WolrdSBK. Petrucci just missed out on his first podium of the year by 1.7 seconds. He had a seemingly costly mistake late in the race which made him unable to catch third place finisher Jonathan Rea. His first podium in WorldSBK will have to wait.
Full WorldSBK Race 1 Results are Below