Starting from pole this time following his win in the morning’s Superpole race, Ducati rider Bautista jumped into an early lead and was never threatened throughout the 20-lap race as he swept to his first triple WSBK victory since the 2019 Aragon round by a margin of 8.1 seconds.
With teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi making it a Ducati 1-2 for the first time this year, it gives Bautista a comfortable 59-point lead at the head of the standings heading into the final four events of the season.
With Bautista untouchable at the head of the field, for fight for second between Rinaldi, Jonathan Rea’s Kawasaki, Toprak Razgatlioglu’s Yamaha and Axel Bassani’s Motocorsa Ducati provided the bulk of the intrigue.
Rinaldi fended off several attacks from Rea in the early stages before Bassani made it an all-Ducati top three at the start of the fifth lap.
Two laps later, Bassani cleared the works V4 R of countryman Rinaldi, but the satellite bike didn’t have the pace to keep the runner-up spot and on lap 11 he slipped back behind Rinaldi, who had to fight back from briefly losing third to Rea.
At the same time Rea ran wide at Turn 1 and slipped to fifth behind Razgatlioglu, but on lap 14 the six-time champion used a double slipstream from both Razgatlioglu and Bassani approaching Turn 1 to move back into third in one fell swoop.
Two laps later, Rea undid his hard work with another unforced error, this time at Turn 7, allowing Razgatlioglu through into third place, although there was nothing he could do about Rinaldi in second.
Rea finally finished fourth, slipping 67 points behind Bautista in the championship, while Bassani was a distant fifth.
Xavi Vierge led the Honda charge in sixth place, as Race 1 poleman Iker Lecuona concluded a disappointing weekend in eighth on the other factory Fireblade behind the Go Eleven Ducati of Philipp Oettl.
Loris Baz was ninth on the best of the BMWs, while Roberto Tamburini scored his best result of the year on the Motoxracing Yamaha with a late charge up the order to 10th place.
Several notable names crashed out of what turned into a fairly attritional race in the Spanish heat.
Front-row starter Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) went down at Turn 10 on the opening lap, while just corners later Scott Redding also suffered a high-speed incident at the final corner on his BMW.
Redding was taken to the medical centre for checks but escaped with a bruised chest.
On lap four, Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli likewise crashed at Turn…
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