Having returned to the Ducati team with which he made an explosive start to his WSBK career in 2019, Bautista was untouchable in the 10-lap sprint on Sunday morning to clinch pole position for the main race later today.
The Spanish rider pulled away cleanly from second position and followed polesitter Razgatlioglu in the opening sequence of corners, pulling off a brilliant maneovure over the Yamaha rival into Turn 4 – despite coming from a long way back on his Panigale V4 R.
Having dispatched the reigning championship, Bautista was able to stretch a sizeable gap out front, aided by Rea and Razgatlioglu engaging in a battle of their own along with the second Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, his advantage over the rest of the field already over a second on lap 4.
From there on Bautista cruised to the finish, taking the chequered flag by over three seconds to clinch his 17th victory in WSBK – and the first since the series’ Argentina round in 2019.
Some way behind the Spaniard,…
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