Alex Lowes wins WorldSBK Superpole race at Phillip Island

WorldSBK 2024
Round One – Phillip Island
Superpole Race

Andrea Iannone led the field through turn one for the first time, Alex Lowes second and Nicolo Bulega third. Toprak Razgatlioglu fourth. Remy Gardner around the outside of Alvaro Bautista at turn three to move up to fifth. Sam Lowes then dusted up Bautista around the back section to push the defending champ back to seventh.

Alex Lowes took the lead from Iannone early on the second lap. Bulega in a little deep and Toprak pounced to take that third place.  Gardner then pushed Bulega further back to fifth.

Toprak Razgatlioglu tailed Andrea Iannone through turn 12 and onto the main straight, but the Italian managed to hold him at bay down the chute and hung on to that second place.

Iannone slipped under Alex Lowes at turn one to take the lead. Remy Gardner up the inside of Toprak at turn ten to take third place with just over six laps to run. Toprak uses the power of the BMW to take that third place back down the chute, but Gardner up the inside at Southern Loop to move up to third place once again. Bautista was now right on the tail of that pair, Andrea Locatelli and Nicolo Bulega a couple of bike lengths further behind.

Bradley Ray crashed at turn six and then rejoined.

Up front Alex Lowes and Andrea Iannone were dusting each other up. Then Toprak Razgatlioglu split the pair at Hayshed, moving up to second place. Remy Gardner then pushed Iannone further back to fourth. Bautista, Locatelli, Bulege, Aegerter and Rinaldi then, one by one, also slipped by Iannone, pushing him outside the top ten.

Remy Gardner got Toprak again at turn ten, to move up to second place this time. Alex Lowes, though, was breaking away while the pursuers fought amongst themselves. Gardner was then blitzed by Toprak, Locatelli and Bautista at turn one, pushing the Aussie back to fifth place.

Locatelli up to second with three laps to run. Alex Lowes leading by 1.1-seconds. Toprak third and Gardner back up to fourth. That was until Bautista blew past him down the chute to start the penultimate lap, relegating Gardner to fifth. Bautista then closed onto the tailpipe of Toprak.

At the last lap board, Alex Lowes led Loctelli by 1.086-seconds.  Toprak third, Bautista fourth, Gardner fifth. Bulega under Gardner at turn ten to steal that fifth place, but Gardner gets him back on entry to turn 11; the two across the line side by side, but Bulega is awarded fifth place by a nose at the flag.

Alex Lowes the winner, untroubled over the final laps on his way to victory while his pursuers tripped each other up.

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Andrea Locatelli a strong second place while Toprak Razgatlioglu just managed to hold out Bautista on the run to the flag for the final step on the rostrum.

That victory the third of Alex Lowes’ World Superbike career.

WorldSBK Superpole Race Results

2024 WorldSBK Dates