Argentina WSBK: Bautista defeats Razgatlioglu to win Race 2

A number of riders took turns leading the 21-lap contest at Circuito San Juan Villicum, before Bautista hit the front and pulled away from the rest of the field.

At the start it was Jonathan Rea who grabbed the top spot with a rapid launch from third on the grid, with Michael Ruben RInaldi also making a quick getaway from fourth to demote polesitter Toprak Razgatlioglu to third.

Rinaldi was the next rider to move into the lead, passing Rea at the beginning of the second lap, with the Kawasaki star subsequently dropping to fifth after running wide at both Turn 7 and 8 on either end of the back-straight.

Alex Lowes also enjoyed a brief moment of glory after passing Rinaldi at the Turn 7 left-hander, before the factory Ducati rider quickly bounced back to reinstate the status quo.

Ultimately, Rinaldi’s reign at the front would also prove to be short-lived, with Bautista and Razgatlioglu passing him in quick succession on lap 5.

Razgatlioglu had won a close duel with Bautista earlier on Sunday afternoon in the Superpole race, but Bautista had the measure of his chief championship rival this time.

After running in close proximity for several laps, the Spaniard was able to pull a one-second buffer out front, before extending his advantage further en route to a convincing 3.3s victory.

It was Bautista's 14th visit to the top step of the podium and the result puts him 82 points clear of second-placed Razgatlioglu in the standings, with just the two flyaway weekends in Indonesia and Australia still to run.

Rea recovered from his lap two errors that dropped him to sixth to grab the final spot on the podium in third, overtaking Kawasaki teammate Lowes into Turn 8 with just four laps to run.

After his early heroics, Rinaldi had to settle for fifth on the factory Ducati, more than 15 seconds off his race-winning teammate Bautista, although he still secured some important points for the Italian marque in its battle against Yamaha in the manufacturers' standings.

Behind, Xavi Vierge got the jump on Iker Lecuona at the start and managed to fend off a mid-race attack from his teammate to finish as the top Honda rider in sixth.

Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli could only rise up to eighth after a disappointing qualifying session, leading factory BMW duo Scott Redding and Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Incredibly, not a single rider from a satellite team finished inside the top 10, with Eugene Laverty the best among that contingent in 11th on the Bonovo BMW.

Fellow satellite rider Axel Bassani had a torrid day in Argentina, picking up a double lap penalty after failing to serve his initial sanction handed to him for irresponsible riding.

Bassani was then hit with a ride-through penalty, ostensibly for serving his double long lap penalty too late, and eventually crossed the line in 20th place.

Argentina WSBK - Race 2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati
2	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	3.389
3	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	9.784
4	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	11.650
5	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	15.656
6	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	16.381
7	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	16.584
8	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	20.401
9	45	Scott Redding	BMW	21.420
10	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	22.413
11	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	30.732
12	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	32.655
13	12	Xavi Fores	Ducati	34.058
14	5	Philipp Oettli	Ducati	38.422
15	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	39.869
16	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	41.107
17	76	Loris Baz	BMW	44.649
18	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	49.119
19	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	54.421
20	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati
21	27	Maximilian Scheib	Honda
22	39	Marco Solorza	Kawasaki
View full results