Race report
World Superbike Villicum
Argentina WSBK: Bautista defeats Razgatlioglu to win Race 2
Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista strengthened his bid for the 2022 World Superbike title with a second victory of the Argentina weekend in Sunday’s final race.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Oct 24, 2022, 9:33 AM
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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
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