Alvaro Bautista made it two from two at Phillip Island by heading an Aruba.it Ducati one-two in Sunday’s Superpole Sprint.
The Spaniard secured the ten lap sprint by over two seconds from his Bologna teammate as Michael Rinaldi regrouped from a disappointing 14th in race one to the runner-up spot on Sunday morning. Pata Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu completed the Supersport podium just over half second back.
The sprint race action fired up on a windy but fully dry Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Track temperatures registering 31℃ as Razgatlioglu once again lined up on pole from Bautista and GRT’s Dominique Aegerter. It was the Ducati, however, who took the holeshot as the lights released the pack. KRT’s Jonathan Rea initially through to third as the WorldSSP Champion dropped back with Rinaldi advancing into the position through Miller corner. The Kawasaki man sent off track and down to ninth by the defending R1.
The Yamaha battles continued as Remy Gardner was the next to find the wheels of teammate Aegerter for sixth. A somewhat battered and bruised Alex Lowes now up to second on the front-running Kawasaki as the Swiss rider defended from Rinaldi for fourth.
Bautista’s lead out front extended to over a second as lap four began, his Aruba teammate up to second on Lowes with Razgatlioglu holding tight and looking for his own way through in fourth. The Turkish rider made the move stick at turn four as three other Yamaha’s vied for position behind the ZX-10RR in the closely-packed top-seven fight. Gardner hitting the back of his GRT teammate to send Aegerter and the Australian crashing out at the same corner next time around.
Four laps to go and the Ducati advantage grew to 1.5s apiece as Razgatlioglu pulled his own half a second gap to Lowes in fourth. The British rider in full defence mode as Pata’s Andrea Locatelli continued to look for a way through with GoEleven’s Philip Oettl and Rea in hot pursuit. Honda’s Iker Lecuona and Motocorsa’s Axel Bassani held the final all-important top nine positions as the penultimate laps unfolded with Michael van der Mark too far back on the BMW to launch an attack.
Locatelli made a move through Miller on the final lap but Lowes cut back to maintain position. Bautista meeting the chequered flag with a 2.4s advantage over a rejuvenated Rinaldi, with Razgatlioglu completing the podium half a second adrift.
Lowes secured fourth after a determined but defensive sprint, Locatelli fifth from Oettl, Rea, Lecuona and Bassani with van der Mark tenth. Barni Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci and Honda’s Xavi Vierge came home in 11th and 12th from the remaining trio of BMW’s in the hands of Loris Baz, Scott Redding and Garrett Gerloff.
