Bautista takes slicks gamble to win exciting Superpole race at P.I.

2022 FIM Superbike World Championship
Round 12 – Phillip Island

WorldSBK Superpole Race

After a mainly dry morning a heavy shower dumped a decent pour on Phillip Island around 20-minutes before WorldSBK Superpole race early this afternoon here at Phillip Island. However due to a quite strong blustery wind had helped the track to dry remarkably quickly, that is not to say it was fully dry, as that was far from the case, as there were plenty of wet patches, but even with the short ten-lap distance it did look like too much of a gamble for full wets at both ends.

After the warm-up lap riders came back into pit-lane for a last-minute tyre change, meaning they would need to start from pit-lane after the rest of the field had passed. Scott Redding one of the few to make that change.

Wen the lights went out it was Toprak Razgatlioglu the early race leader ahead of team-mate Andrea Locatelli while a slick shot Bautista was third before getting absolutely swamped by about ten riders on the run through turn three as he tip-toed his way around on slicks, while most of his competitors were on intermediates or a shandy (mix of different rubber front to rear) of some sort.

At the end of the opening lap Alex Lowes led the way from Razgatlioglu and Rea, Locatelli fourth, Van der Mark fifth and Gerloff sixth. Bautista has been shuffled down to 14th place. Most of the front runners as this stage running a wet front and intermediate rear.

Nothing separates Lowes, Razgatlioglu and Rea over the opening few laps.  Scott Redding was starting to make progress, up to tenth with six laps to run, ten-seconds behind the race leaders, and Bautista was up to ninth.

Bautista set a new fastest lap of the race on lap five, he was now in eighth place, 7.3-seconds behind the leaders… He was running two-seconds quicker than the guys up front, so he had time to do it.

Jonathan Rea moved through to the lead while Razgatlioglu tried to stay with him, while the pace was now too hot for Alex Lowes as he had started to lose touch with that duo. Rea had upped his pace dramatically, but Bautista was getting quicker again. The Spaniard had been slowed by traffic which slowed his charge a little but when he got past anyone he left them for dead.

Rea saved a big front end lose at turn four and did not lose position. Razgatlioglu did get him at turn ten though. As that pair crossed the stripe with three to run, Lowes was still in third and two-seconds behind the leaders, Bautista had just got Locatelli for fourth and was now only 3.5-seconds behind the leaders…

Bautista took third place from Lowes at Lukey Heights with just over two laps to run. And then closed on Razgatlioglu and Rea so fast he made it look like they were on 600s. The Ducati man just blew past Rea, then did Razgat up the inside at Lukey Heights for the penultimate time. By the last lap board, only a few corners later, Bautista already led by over a second.

At the flag Bautista the victor by 3.3-seconds while Razgatlioglu managed to hold off Rea’s last lap charge to claim second place.

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Alex Lowes fourth, Alex Locatelli and Scott Redding fifth after starting from pit-lane.

Alvaro Bautista – P1

“I have nothing to lose, this was to have fun. I did the gamble at the beginning and it was crazy, fortunately, I know the track very well from MotoGP times, so I know with this kind of weather the track will dry very fast. I just thought why not try and now I am happy. At the beginning I had to be very careful, so many riders past me, so I could do nothing to stop them. When the track started to dry it was the opposite, I try to pass them as soon as possible I had a couple of moments in the race but at the end it came good. I am so happy because the gamble worked really well and I want to thank the team because they supported me. I enjoyed this race a lot, what happened this is one of the best races of my career.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu – P2

“I am very enjoying this race and the first laps I followed with Jonny. I am not experienced with these intermediate tyres but after a few laps I see the track dry so it was a problem with the front tyre, I think everyone had this same problem. Congratulations to Alvaro it was a good gamble with the slick tyres directly. We keep fighting, second position is not bad, thank you very much to my team because they are doing a very good job this weekend. In this last race, we will just try my best.”

Jonathan Rea – P3

“Alvaro charged and won the race but honestly for those watching at home that don’t understand, that the strategy that he did was big balls you know. So, fair play to him and his crew they made the right decision at a crucial time and for me the battle with Alex [Lowes] and Toprak, we were trying to manage the front tyre. I went with the wet front and coming around Turn 3 it’s so fast and it was like moving and tucking and just thought just ride and finish the race. On the last lap I come in and I thought maybe I can do something on the home straight, so I flicked back to the dry mode to try and get some acceleration but it wasn’t enough so third place is what we have here and hope we can go a bit better in race 2 today and see if we can finish the season on a high.”

WorldSBK Superpole Race Results

WorldSBK Championship Points