Jonathan Rea wins opening PI WorldSBK race including stops

Superbike FIM World Championship 2022
Round 12 – Phillip Island

WorldSBK Race One

Alvaro Bautista’s Ducati appeared to have stumbled at the wet starting line but that didn’t stop him from taking the lead over Toprak Razgatlioglu, Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes. The rain had stopped but the track was still quite wet and almost the entire field was starting to get wet, with only Oettl choosing the middle rear.

Early in the second round, Jonathan Rea ran wide in turn one but somehow rallied to keep third, not only that, but later in the same lap he started showing Razgatlioglu a wheel and challenge that second place. Rea took that spot in turn as they started the next lap and immediately began pressing against the rear wheel of Bautista’s Ducati. Rea then took the lead on the fourth round and began to outpace Bautista.

Razgatlioglu then pushed Bautista back to third, then Alex Lowes made a rather difficult move on Bautista to push the Spaniard further back down to fourth.

Toprak Razgatlioglu then drove brilliantly into the main road and overtook Rea on turn one to lead the race with 17 laps. The track is drying quickly now and it will be interesting to see who will have the tire left at the end of the race, or who will choose to go down the hole first…

Razgatlioglu ran a little wide out of the Southern Loop, which allowed both Rea and later Lowes to also overtake Turk and take a 1-2 lead on KRT, but only a short distance from the four-man lead.

Alex Lowes then led the race at the end of the main line with 15 laps remaining after completing a new lap fastest. Then he went faster again the next time after torturing his Pirelli behind.

On lap nine, Xavi Fores stepped into the pit to place what looked like a mediator in the back of his Ducati Barni. Rinaldi then comes to get new rubber. In the next round, the first of the leaders appeared for the ball, Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Alex Bassani also followed. Alex Lowes and Alvaro Bautista both stayed out of the track, but the Ducati man came in next time, while Lowes opted to do another lap on his track and is now 28 seconds ahead of the third. two is Scott Redding.

Race leader Alex Lowes then ran 11 laps while Scott Redding stayed out and led the race, the Briton having 1.5 seconds ahead of Kyle Smith. Kyle Smith though then began to approach him. Jonathan Rea is currently in third place after re-entering the race and is running 1m32 seconds, nine seconds faster than Redding and Smith were able to muster on their run. The gap between Rea and the leaders was more than 20 seconds but it was decreasing rapidly.

Redding ended up taking the rubber spot with nine laps as Kyle Smith took the lead. However, it wasn’t long before Rea swept him in with ease and got past him with seven and a half laps left. Razgatlioglu then pushed Smith further down to third place while Turk placed themselves in second place just under eight seconds behind Rea. Bautista then placed third, Lowes fourth and Locatelli fifth as Smith shuffled deeper down the field.

Razgatlioglu is chasing Rea hard and has a distance of under six seconds with six laps, but the battle for third place is really heating up, Lowes, Bautista and Locatelli all together.

With three laps remaining, Rea leading Razgatlioglu by 5.2 seconds while Lowes and Locatelli were 10 seconds behind, Bautista began to lose contact with them.

Jonathan Rea had a calculated win, his first win in 24 races, his last coming to Estoril earlier in the year. Toprak Razgatlioglu went home in second and Alex Lowes took the final step on the podium ahead of Alex Locatelli and Alvaro Bautista.

Jonathan Rea

“Yes, the race was great because it was a bit of everything, I had to keep my composure and my mentality. I tried to stop the pit at the right time because I could see the track was drying very quickly. Alex was very fast at first, so I thought why not, roll the dice and it worked. My friends had a great pit stop and they gave me a good bike that withstands dry and wet setups and I can also adjust the bike while I’m riding. A big thank you to Team Kawasaki, so is my family here at Phillip Island, and all my fans here thank you so much and hope we can do a good job. tomorrow and end the year strong.

“It was very blistering when it passed through the haystack [Turn 8] I got blown into the wet part of the track and then went down to the MG and the track was still wet, I always brake early. I raced at 31 with caution. With breakpoints we have a procedure.

“It was a second race home for me, I could roll myself into bed, my son reminds me that it’s only a 6 minute drive, it’s amazing. I have a lot of support and family here and it’s a beautiful track, it’s where I won my first with Kawasaki in 2015 so there are a lot of special memories for me.“

Kyle Smith completed the entire race on the wet track to finish in 12th place, 66 seconds behind the race winner.

Toprak Razgatlioglu – P2

“After today’s race, I feel better, especially in wet conditions, I feel the bike much better. Today we started the race with a bad feeling (wet), the back was slipping and everyone was the same. After we saw a dry line, I got close to Johnny because I didn’t eat the tire. The weather is weird today, I’m waiting for more rain but I see the sky is very clear and after seeing Jonny enter the umbrella I walked straight in. The front tire does not go in, the front tire has a problem. The team isn’t happy about this right now, but it’s teamwork anyway, that’s why I’m here because we’re together. Anyway Championship is coming to an end, I’m second and I want to fight Jonny to win but maybe tomorrow.”

Alex Lowes

“Yeah, it was a weird race, I felt like I was one of the fastest riders, I’m fast on the wet fast on the dry so I’m happy to be on the podium. I just want to fight at the front and show my speed. I enjoyed my race so much, it’s weird that you have to hit the hole in the middle. Finally, I’m on a bike, I can come whenever I want. Probably. I got to the pit too late, I thought I would pit when the first one pitted, but I was ahead so I didn’t know when to pit and I wanted to use wet tires as much as possible. I just slide the window a little.”

WorldSBK Race One results

WorldSBK . Championship Score

Phillip Island WSBK/ASBK Fixtures