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Assen WSBK: Bautista wins again, Rea's P2 streak broken

Alvaro Bautista was victorious yet again in the final World Superbike race at Assen as Jonathan Rea's streak of second-place finishes was ended by local hero Michael van der Mark.

Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Team

Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Rea had a brilliant start from eighth on the grid and led five corners into the race, but the Kawasaki rider did not pull away from Bautista and instead led a group involving several riders.

While Bautista was cautious in the early stages and did not challenge Rea, others were unable to demote the Ducati rider despite him being closely followed by the likes of van der Mark and Leon Haslam.

As his teammate Chaz Davies moved up to third, Bautista finally made a move on Rea at Turn 8 and his teammate followed suit a corner later.

Rea was even temporarily passed by van der Mark and while the Northern Irishman quickly retook second, this was all Bautista needed to escape the reigning champion.

The gap between the top two stagnated for a handful of laps before Bautista started to gradually stretch his advantage, and he took the chequered flag by 4.6s.

Once his victory challenge was over, Rea came under pressure from van der Mark, and the Dutchman pulled off a brave move on the way into the Turn 17-18 chicane with three laps remaining.

Rea did not drop back and was all over Van der Mark at the chequered flag, but the latter secured second by 0.018s, meaning Rea's streak of second-place finishes ends at 10.

Alex Lowes took fourth but was more than 10 seconds behind Bautista, whose teammate Davies ended up fifth.

BMW duo Markus Reiterberger and Tom Sykes took sixth and seventh with Haslam dropping to eighth despite being in podium contention early on.

The top 10 was completed by privateer Kawasaki riders - Puccetti's Toprak Razgatlioglu and Pedercini's Jordi Torres.

Race results

Cla Rider Bike Laps Time Gap
1 Spain Alvaro Bautista  Ducati 21 33'28.682  
2 Netherlands Michael van der Mark  Yamaha 21 33'33.370 4.688
3 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea  Kawasaki 21 33'33.388 4.706
4 United Kingdom Alex Lowes  Yamaha 21 33'38.755 10.073
5 United Kingdom Chaz Davies  Ducati 21 33'42.349 13.667
6 Germany Markus Reiterberger  BMW 21 33'44.055 15.373
7 United Kingdom Tom Sykes  BMW 21 33'44.069 15.387
8 United Kingdom Leon Haslam  Kawasaki 21 33'49.597 20.915
9 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu  Kawasaki 21 33'51.604 22.922
10 Spain Jordi Torres  Kawasaki 21 33'52.200 23.518
11 Germany Sandro Cortese  Yamaha 21 33'56.968 28.286
12 United Kingdom Leon Camier  Honda 21 34'04.721 36.039
13 Ireland Eugene Laverty  Ducati 21 34'05.041 36.359
14 Italy Marco Melandri  Yamaha 21 34'05.577 36.895
15 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi  Ducati 21 34'05.595 36.913
16 Spain Hector Barbera  Kawasaki 21 34'05.777 37.095
17 Italy Alessandro Delbianco  Honda 20 34'38.882 1 Lap
  Japan Ryuichi Kiyonari  Honda 16 5 laps 5 Laps

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