Superbike / Superpole Race, Australia: | FP

Italy only in part

After the successes and the all-Italian celebrations on Saturday morning in Italy, Sunday at Phillip Island began this time in the name of Alex Lowes. The Briton, already a protagonist in free practice on Friday, actually won the Superpole Race on his bike Kawasaki Ninjawith a top-3 that he still saw Andrea Locatelli back in second position before Toprak Razgatliogluat his first podium with BMW. Nicolò Bulega was in more difficulty, 5th after a difficult start which had instead put Andrea Iannone as a potential winner of the race, only to then give up halfway through the race due to a technical problem that occurred on his Ducati just as he was leading the standings.

Race report

Exactly with yesterday's Race 1, he once again prevailed at the start Andrea Iannone, who jumped into the lead with an excellent start and with Bulega instead relegated from pole to third position, also being overtaken by Lowes. The British rider from Kawasaki then took the lead during the second round, all with the continuation of Bulega's crisis, also overtaken by Razgatlioglu and Gardner. As we got closer to the halfway point of the race, the battles for the victory and the podium became increasingly heated: Iannone returned to lead the group, just as Gardner in turn temporarily moved into the podium area after having had the better on Razgatlioglu, all with the spectacular rises of Bautista and Locatelli, able to take advantage of a Bulega in difficulty. However, on the sixth lap, the twist of the race occurs: Iannone suddenly loses ground on his pursuers for a problem with his Ducatito the point of abandoning any possibility of victory and concluding the Superpole Race even at 14th place. An unexpected event that completely revolutionizes the ranking in favor of Lowes, who jumps into the lead and gets ahead of his pursuers. Behind him, Locatelli completed another excellent comeback which took him to second position ahead of Razgatlioglu, who thus obtained his first podium with BMW, albeit in the Superpole Race. Bautista and Bulega also did well, recovering at the end to cross the finish line in fourth and fifth place respectively, with Gardner in 6th place after a good battle for the podium in the first half of the race. In this way, Lowes reconfirms himself as one of the protagonists of the Phillip Island weekend, where he had set the absolute best time in the free tests with his Kawasaki. Finally, back in crisis Jonathan Rea: 10th.

Superbikes | Phillip Island 2024, Superpole Race: order of arrival

Next appointment

Once the Superpole Race is over, all attention is on Race 2which will complete the first weekend of the 2024 season. The green light will come on at 6:00 Italianwith live coverage of the event available on both Sky Sports MotoGP (also streaming on Sky GO or NOW TV) and on TV8. The replay of the Superpole Race will then be broadcast at 9.45am or 4.40pm on Sky, while Race 2 will be broadcast again at 1.45pm or 5.10pm on the same channel 208. TV8 will also offer reruns of the Superpole Race and Race 2, at 1.15pm and 2.15pm respectively.