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Argentina WSBK: Rea beats Bautista in Superpole race

Reigning world champion Jonathan Rea eased to his 13th win of the 2019 World Superbike season, after beating Alvaro Bautista in the Superpole race at Villicum.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

After six riders opted to sit out the first race of the weekend over dangerous track conditions on Saturday, a full WSBK field lined up for the 10-lap sprint contest.

Kawasaki’s Rea leaped up to second off the line behind Race 1 winner and poleman Bautista and ahead of Puccetti Kawasaki's Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Bautista’s lead was short-lived, however, as Rea scythed up the inside of the Ducati rider at the Turn 7 right-hander and resisted a counterattack into Turn 8 at the end of the straight.

Once clear of Bautista, Rea immediately opened up a lead of a handful of tenths, with his gap close to a second by the third tour.

Rea continued to extend this, though was dealt a scare on the penultimate lap when he lost the front end of his ZX-10RR on the way into Turn 10.

Remaining mounted, he cruised to the chequered flag ahead of Bautista, who in turn was able to gap the chasing Razgatlioglu – who secured the independent riders’ title with his third-place finish on Saturday.

The sister works Ducati of Chaz Davies was lucky to escape a moment exiting Turn 9 on the first lap while duelling with Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark, and was forced into a recovery ride after dropping to seventh.

Using the sheer grunt of the Panigale V4 R on the straights, he quickly disposed of the Yamahas of Sandro Cortese (GRT), van der Mark and Alex Lowes.

He was able to eat into Razgatlioglu’s gap ahead of him, but ran out of laps to mount an assault on the final podium place.

Lowes was the top Yamaha runner across the line in fifth ahead of van der Mark and Cortese, with Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam, Tom Sykes on the BMW and home hero Leandro Mercado (Orelac Kawasaki) rounding out the top 10.

Ten Kate Yamaha rider Loris Baz returned to action on Sunday after missing Saturday’s race with a sprained wrist and a mild head injury following a crash at the start of Superpole.

Unfortunately, Baz suffered an identical off-throttle highside at Turn 16 at the end of the opening lap and was relegated to onlooker for the rest of the race.

Rea’s victory puts him on pole position for this final feature race later today, with Bautista and Razgatlioglu making up the front row.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Time
1 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 10 16'23.270
2 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Ducati 10 16'25.410
3 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Kawasaki 10 16'26.952
4 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 10 16'28.819
5 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Yamaha 10 16'31.592
6 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 10 16'32.748
7 11 Germany Sandro Cortese
Yamaha 10 16'34.663
8 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Kawasaki 10 16'38.596
9 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 10 16'39.974
10 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Kawasaki 10 16'40.203
11 81 Spain Jordi Torres
Kawasaki 10 16'42.789
12 2 United Kingdom Leon Camier
Honda 10 16'43.885
13 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
Ducati 10 16'46.055
14 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 10 16'48.940
15 33 Italy Marco Melandri
Yamaha 10 16'49.828
16 52 Italy Alessandro Del Bianco
Honda 10 16'53.418
17 28 Germany Markus Reiterberger
BMW 10 17'05.386
18 23 Japan Ryuichi Kiyonari
Honda 10 17'05.933
76 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 0

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