Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) completed a hat-trick of race wins at Phillip Island with his second full race distance victory today. Having also won the first ever Tissot-Superpole Sprint race earlier this afternoon, he had in reality taken three wins, but only two of them will count in the stats sheets – even though all three award points of some kind.
The second 22-lap contest was once more simply dominated by Bautista and his little red rev-monster of a Ducati. Having blitzed the first race on Saturday he was equally in control in ‘Race 2’ – i.e, the final race of the weekend, over the same 22 laps as the opener on Saturday.
Alvaro and his Ducati had been 17 seconds up but slowed to finish 12.195 seconds ahead of second placed Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and third placed Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team), after a great fight between the green team-mates.
A three rider Yamaha scrap, which had once been in the close orbit of the KRT duel, saw Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team)
fourth, Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) fifth and race one podium finisher Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) sixth.
A huge recovery by early season struggler Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) put him seventh, but still 26.823 seconds from his new team-mate Bautista.
Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) was eighth, while a three-rider fight saw Eugene Laverty (Team GoEleven Ducati) ninth, Leon Camier (Moriwaki-Althea Honda Racing Team) tenth and Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) 11th. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was 13th.
In the championship Bautista’s success means he has a perfect 62 points, with Rea behind on 49 for three second place results in each race, long or short, this weekend.
By Gordon Ritchie
Photography GnG
