2019 WorldSBK
Round One – Phillip Island
Race Three
Alvaro Bautista again sprinted away from the field when the lights went out at 1500 on Sunday afternoon for the third and final World Superbike race of the opening round of the championship staged at Phillip Island over the last weekend in February.
KRT duo Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea gave chase, but a consistent string of 1m30s from Bautista across the opening laps proved too much for them to contend with.
Behind the Kawasaki Racing Team pair it was a battle for supremacy amongst the Yamaha riders. Melandri and Van Der Mark proving too quick for Lowes in this one as they tussled over fourth position.
Melandri won the battle for Yamaha supremacy, breaking away from Van Der Mark and as the race approached the halfway marker Melandri was starting to attack the KRT double-act. Up front Bautista was leading by eight-seconds, and in a different race…
Rea had followed Haslam for the first 15 laps before finally making his way past his team-mate, Haslam was having none of it though and pushed back through at turn four. That little tussle had allowed Melandri to really start nipping at their heels. Early on the next lap though Haslam ran in way too deep at turn one allowing Rea back through, it was a great recovery though and Haslam was back with him by the exit of Southern Loop. Bautista was halfway to the airport by this time…
The battle for the other spots on the rostrum though was really warming up. With four laps remaining nothing separated Rea, Haslam and Melandri while Michael Van der Mark has also joined that party.
Haslam and Rea responded to the Yamaha challenge though by pulling their finger out and gapping Melandri and Van der Mark.
As Rea and Haslam got the last lap board Bautista was boarding his plane home… In reality he led by almost 20-seconds, despite backing the pace right off in the closing laps, and rolling out of the throttle to cruise to the line and take the chequered flag still with a buffer of 12-seconds over the KRT duo.
World Superbike Sunday Main Race Results
- Alvaro Bautista – Ducati
- Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki +12.195
- Leon Haslam – Kawasaki +12.454
- Michael Van der Mark – Yamaha +16.574
- Alex Lowes – Yamaha +16.859
- Marco Melandri – Yamaha +17.329
- Chaz Davies – Ducati +26.823
- Sandro Cortese – Yamaha +27.580
- Eugene laverty – Ducati +29.116
- Leon Camier – Honda +29.178
- Leandro Mercado – Kawasaki +29.460
- Markus Reiterberger – BMW +29.460
- Tom Sykes – BMW +31.231
- Jordi Torres – Kawasaki +40.926
- Ryuichi Kiyonari – Honda +41.616
World Superbike Championship Points Standings
- Alvaro Bautista 62
- Jonathan Rea 49
- Marco Melandri 30
- Alex Lowes 30
- Michael Van der Mark 29
- Leon Haslam 24
- Sandro Cortese 19
- Chaz Davies 15
- Tom Sykes 12
- Eugene Laverty 12
Source: MCNews.com.au