Bautista still in history
The result was in the air, and now it has become official: Alvaro Bautista is mathematically the 2023 Superbike world champion. To the Spanish of Ducati – Aruba.it they would have been enough two points more than Toprak Razgatlioglu to conquer his second world title in this category, as well as the second consecutive, and so it was. The 38-year-old Spaniard, right in front of his home crowd, crossed the finish line first after taking pole position, ending early the fight for this year’s championship with the Turkish Yamaha rider, who arrived behind him. , at the end of a race conducted almost completely alone.
Race report
Bautista, who started from pole position ahead of a surprising Dominique Aegerter, maintained the lead in the standings after an excellent start, with the Swiss overtaken by the two Kawasakis of Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes. However, in the space of just three laps, Razgatlioglu managed to recover from seventh on the grid to second place, chasing Bautista. In the first half of the race, the #54 even seemed ready to overtake, but the attack for the lead did not materialize. In the last ten laps, in fact, the Spaniard increasingly increased his advantage, thus putting the world championship in the safe ahead of Razgatlioglu, protagonist of a nice gesture of sportsmanship immediately at the end of the race complete with congratulations to his rival. Different story for third position, with the other Yamaha Andrea Locatelli capable of getting on the podium by overtaking the two Kawasakis between the 11th and 12th laps. While the Northern Irishman still managed to defend fourth position, the same was not true for Lowes, who was even excluded from the top-5 by Petrucci and Öttl, in fifth and sixth place respectively. With this success, Bautista joins the group of riders who have won more than one world championship in their career, equaling others double world champions in Superbike like the Americans Fred Merkel, Doug Polen and Colin Edwards. English is added to them James Toseland and the Australian Troy Corser and last but not least, Max Biaggi.
BACK-TO-BACK! 🏆🏆 @19Bautista is the 2023 FIM #WorldSBK Champion! 👑#TheDefence of the title completes a record-breaking season! 👏 #ESPWorldSBK 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/RoMGa6TOKa
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) October 28, 2023
Superbikes | Jerez 2023, Race-1: order of arrival
POS. | PILOT | MOTORCYCLE | TIME/GAP |
1 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 33:44.752 |
2 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Yamaha | +1,195 |
3 | Andrea Locatelli | Yamaha | +9.071 |
4 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | +10.065 |
5 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | +10,661 |
6 | Philipp Öttl | Ducati | +11,538 |
7 | Alex Lowes | Kawasaki | +12,152 |
8 | Michael Rinaldi | Ducati | +18.148 |
9 | Iker Lecuona | Honda | +20,639 |
10 | Xavi Vierge | Honda | +23,671 |
11 | Tito Rabat | Kawasaki | +24.827 |
12 | Lorenzo Baldassarri | Yamaha | +27.061 |
13 | Loris Baz | BMW | +39,299 |
14 | Garrett Gerloff | BMW | +39,983 |
15 | Hafizh Syahrin | Honda | +56,614 |
16 | Oliver König | Kawasaki | +56,658 |
17 | Leandro Mercado | Honda | +58.075 |
18 | Dominique Aegerter | Yamaha | +59.924 |
19 | Florian Alt | Honda | +1 turn |
20 | Axel Bassani | Ducati | Withdrawn |
21 | Gabriele Ruiu | BMW | Withdrawn |
22 | Michael van der Mark | BMW | Withdrawn |
23 | Scott Redding | BMW | Withdrawn |
24 | Remy Gardner | Yamaha | Withdrawn |
Sunday’s appointments
Tomorrow’s day is unmissable, the last one on this calendar as well as the last of several riders with their respective teams before moving on to other realities for 2024. We will start with the Superpole Racea decisive race for the assignment of the first nine places on the starting grid Race-2. The event, scheduled at 11:00 am and live on Sky Sports Arenawill therefore anticipate that of Race-2, set for 30 hours 2pm and also available free-to-air on TV8.
#Superbike #Jerez #Race1 #Bautista #champion #FormulaPazzion