Indonesia WSBK: Razgatlioglu wins, Bautista closes on title

Poleman Razgatlioglu led from start to finish at the Indonesian venue to register his 12th win of the season and keep his slim title defence hopes alive, beating the Ducati of Bautista by a margin of 4.3 seconds.

It means Bautista takes a reduced lead of 77 points into Sunday's two races, with only 99 left on offer this season.

At the start, Razgatlioglu and teammate Andrea Locatelli established an early Yamaha 1-2 out front as Bautista jumped from fifth on the grid to third ahead of the Kawasaki of Jonathan Rea.

Six-time champion Rea was able to wrest back third later around the opening lap, before making light work of Locatelli to take second on lap 2 of 21 before closing in on leader Razgatlioglu.

But it soon became clear that Rea lacked the pace to take the fight to the runaway polesitter, and he soon had to turn his attentions to protecting second from Bautista, who didn't take long to pass Locatelli for third.

Bautista dived up the inside of Rea at the long Turn 15-16 right-hander on lap 9 to take second, but by this stage Razgatlioglu had already escaped to the tune of three seconds at the head of the field.

Razgatlioglu suffered a scare on lap 13 as he ran wide, allowing Bautista to close to within just over a second, but he soon started to rebuild his advantage and was never seriously threatened on his way to the chequered flag.

Behind Bautista, Rea was a distant third, a result that official rules the six-time title winner out of the championship fight.

Locatelli was passed late on for fourth by the second works Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, but on lap 17 Rinaldi ran wide, allowing Locatelli back through to score his best finish since May's Estoril round.

A fierce battle for sixth place was eventually won by Xavi Vierge, the sole factory representative for Honda in the absence of Iker Lecuona, who couldn't race after injuring himself in a Friday practice crash.

Garrett Gerloff was seventh on the GRT Yamaha to beat Axel Bassani to the honour of top independent rider, while Alex Lowes could only manage ninth after being shuffled out wide on the opening lap.

Loris Baz was the top BMW finisher in 10th place following a late crash for Michael van der Mark, who had made it as high as fifth place at one stage before dropping back and tumbling at Turn 16 while battling Gerloff.

Scott Redding was another rider to lose out in a big way on the opening lap, dropping virtually to last, with the Briton only able to recover to a disappointing 12th at the finish.

World Superbike Mandalika - Race 1 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	21
2	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	21	4.324
3	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	21	11.855
4	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	21	19.954
5	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	21	23.992
6	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	21	27.114
7	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	21	27.776
8	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	21	31.015
9	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	21	31.363
10	76	Loris Baz	BMW	21	39.809
11	12	Xavi Fores	Ducati	21	39.895
12	45	Scott Redding	BMW	21	56.317
13	35	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda	21	1'00.618
14	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	21	1'04.247
15	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	21	1'05.242
16	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	21	1'06.538
	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	17
	11	Kyle Smith	Kawasaki	12
	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	11
	5	Philipp Oettli	Ducati	10
View full results