Gordon Ritchie | February 23, 2019
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Race 2.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) took three 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, Bautista had in reality taken three wins. However, only two of them will count in the stats—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 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team). Third was Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team), after a great fight between the green teammates.
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. Race one podium finisher Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) was sixth.
A huge recovery by Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) put him seventh, but still 26.823 seconds from his teammate Bautista.
Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) was eighth. He finished ahead of a three-rider fight that saw Eugene Laverty (Team GoEleven Ducati) ninth, Leon Camier (Moriwaki-Althea Honda Racing Team) 10th 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. Second is Rea on 49, Melandri has 30 and is tied with Alex Lowes, while Michael van der Mark rounds out the top five with 29.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Race 2
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSSP Race.
Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) enjoyed the first race win of the 2019 WorldSSP season after an exciting two-part 16-lap contest at Phillip Island.
He was in close competition with his teammate Federico Caricasulo (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) right up until the mandatory mid-race tire change.
Krummenacher left his pit lane position in good order. But Caricasulo, revving his engine after his rear wheel was changed, was delayed after his spinning rear tire landed on the ground. It took rider, bike and rear paddock-stand down pitlane for a time. His mechanics ran to get it disentangled, and his hopes of winning the race stayed back in pit lane.
Caricasulo would finish third, with the experienced Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) second overall. This despite being penalized for coming out marginally too early from his mandatory pit intervention time.
In the final analysis, Krummenacher won the race with some ease in the end, from Cluzel and the exasperated Caricasulo.
Hector Barbera (Team Toth by Willirace Yamaha) took an impressive fourth place. He was still almost 10 seconds back on Krummenacher.
Thomas Gradinger (Kallio Racing Yamaha) was fifth, 15 seconds back, with the top Kawasaki rider being Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) in sixth.
Corentin Perolari (GMT94 Yamaha) was seventh. Peter Sebestyen (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) was eighth (and first Honda), with Jules Danilo (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) and Loris Cresson (Kallio Racing Yamaha) completing the top 10.
One of three riders punished for exceeding the mandatory pit intervention time was Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), by a huge margin of over 20 seconds. He was this finally relegated to 12th, one place behind the potent wildcard rider Tom Toparis (Landbridge Transport Yamaha).
Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) crashed out while in a strong position behind the leaders.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSSP Race
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Superpole Race.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) battled for the win in the all-new Tissot Superpole race, held over just ten laps of the Phillip Island track.
Bautista finally took a clear win by 1.176 seconds. But Rea was in a pugilistic mood, pushing his way past at times and faster than the so-far omnipotent new Ducati Panigale V4 R and new WorldSBK leader in at least some places on a 10 lap set-up at least.
Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team) recovered from a race one crash to take a podium that kind of wasn’t, as the new race-cum-qualifying does not count for statistics, but does award point for the top nine riders—from 12 points to one.
The new race also gives these top nine riders their final grid positions for race three, based on their Superpole race finishing positions. Hence, Alvaro Bautista scored 12 championship points and takes pole position for the third and final race. Rea takes nine points for second, and second place on the second ‘big’ race grid.
Behind the podium/no-podium trio, Pata Yamaha teammates Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark finished within 0.087 seconds of each other, fourth and fifth respectively. The second tranche of Yamaha teammates, GRT duo Marco Melandri and Sandro Cortese were sixth and seventh. On a good day for the new Ducati, even the privateers were involved in the exciting new race format, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team Ducati) eighth and Eugene Laverty (Team GoEleven Ducati) ninth.
The still-struggling Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) completed the top 10.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Superpole Race
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Race One.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) scored a stunning race victory in his first ever WorldSBK outing, after running away from the entire field to win by 14.983 seconds. He even held a lead of over 16 seconds with one lap to go. He was the first WorldSBK rookie to win his first race since Max Biaggi on a Suzuki in 2007.
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) battled it out for the other podium places for some time, after long-time second place rider Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team) crashed out, then restarted to finish 15th.
Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) came through from ninth place to third, and the leading Yamaha man, as Lowes ended up fourth, but only just, after a great last lap battle.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) placed fifth, breaking away from a battle behind between Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). Razgatlioglu took sixth from Sykes, by 0.2 of a second.
Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) was eighth in his WorldSBK debut, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team Ducati) ninth and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) went from 16th on the grid to tenth.
Leon Camier (Moriwaki-Althea Honda Racing Team) crashed out.
Now on Sunday, there will be a sprint race at noon, then a second full-length race in the afternoon, again at 3:00 pm local time.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Race One
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSSP Superpole. — Federico Caricasulo (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) was the fastest rider in the first WorldSSP championship Superpole of 2019. He was just 0.079 seconds ahead of his teammate Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha).
Both riders from the Bardahl team were again head and shoulders above their peers, with many hunting a tow from the leading due, much to Krummenacher’s annoyance.
Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) was third quickest on his R6, but 0.539 seconds from the lead. Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) broke up the Yamaha hordes with the fourth best time and starting position for Sunday’s flag-to-flag, two-part, WorldSSP race.
WorldSSP rookie Federico Fuglini (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was fifth and Friday star Thomas Gradinger (Kallio Racing Yamaha) sixth.
Hector Barbera (Team Toth by Willirace) slotted in seventh, ahead of the leading Kawasaki belonging to Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). A slower rider held up Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) as he went for a time that would have put him higher than his eventual eighth place. Top Honda qualifier was Hannes Soomer (MPM WILSport Racedays Honda) in tenth place. Wildcard rider Tom Toparis (Landbridge Transport Yamaha) placed 15th and top Aussies rider.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSSP Superpole
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Superpole. — The single-shot 25-minute Superpole introduced for 2019 was won at the first attempt by the number one plate rider, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team). His 1:29.413 best lap was a new track best for Superbikes at PI.
Rea’s teammate Leon Haslam was a composed and confident second in his full-time WordSBK return. He was 0.211 seconds from the top.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) placed third in his first competitive experience of Pirelli qualifying tires. He was 0.316 seconds from Rea, but on the front row all the same.
Another new bike, the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK factory machine of Tom Sykes, was fourth fastest. He just over 0.4 seconds back from his 2018 teammate’s best lap.
Top Yamaha man was Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team). He will line up in fifth place, from rookie Yamaha rider Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) in sixth.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha) was seventh. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team Ducati) found pace at just the right time after an earlier technical issue in the morning free practice session. He finished eighth.
The last rider to get within a second of Rea was Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha), in ninth place, while Leon Camier’s first Superpole outing on his HRC-supplied Moriwaki Althea Racing CBR1000RR put him inside the top 10 – if only just.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was a lowly 16th, while Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda) failed to qualify directly, but was allowed to get onto the grid due to his earlier performances in practice.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, WorldSBK Superpole
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, Friday WorldSSP
In the closely contested WorldSSP class the real improvements Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) found in recent tests have already translated into an advantage over his peers.
He was the fastest rider on Friday, after free practice, with his 1:32.777. That was 0.373 ahead of Thomas Gradinger (Kallio Racing Yamaha). And he was ahead of his own teammate, Federico Caricasulo (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) who occupies third place.
Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) completed a leading quartet on another Yamaha before the first non-R6 appeared on the listings.
Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was fifth fastest, from the top Kawasaki runner Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). Mahias’ teammate, Hikari Okubo, was seventh and Hector Barbera (Team Toth by Willirace Yamaha) eighth.
The WorldSSP top 10, after a dry but sometimes overcast day on the Island, was completed by Corentin Perolari (GMT94 Yamaha) and new rider to the championship, Federico Fuglini (MV Agusta Reparto Corse).
Hannes Soomer (MPM WILSport Racedays Honda) was the top CBR600RR rider. He placed 12th, and wildcard man Tom Toparis (Landbridge Transport Yamaha) 15th out of 24 riders at his home circuit.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Results, Friday WorldSSP
2019 Australia WorldSBK Friday Results.
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and his potential new championship challenger Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) wrestled for the status of the fastest rider on day one at Phillip Island, as the 2019 WorldSBK Championship got underway for real at Phillip Island.
Bautista was the top name in the final 2019 Australia WorldSBK Results list by just 0.014 seconds from Rea. Rea had two attempts to get into the provisional pole but lost out in the final sector each time.
Third quickest was WorldSBK returnee Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team), 0.155 seconds from Bautista.
In an increasingly diverse WorldSBK scene, Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) took the BMW to fourth, 0.337 from Bautista.
Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) had an eventful second Friday session. He ran off and then toppled off while almost at a standstill, but got back on to finish fifth quickest.
After having a solid two days of testing earlier in the week Leon Camier (Moriwaki-Althea Honda Racing Team) was sensational in finishing sixth today. He was just 0.465 seconds from Bautista. Camier’s pace ensured that there would be five different manufacturers inside the top six places.
Rookie WorldSBK rider Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) was the second fastest Yamaha, in seventh place overall. The second BMW of Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was a much improved eighth.
Proven race winner Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) placed ninth and the best of the privateer Kawasaki riders was Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing), in 10th place.
Big names Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) were 13th and 14th respectively.
2019 Australia WorldSBK Friday Results
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