Assen WSBK: Bautista wins final race as Rea, Razgatlioglu collide

Razgatlioglu led the early stages of the race after getting the holeshot from second on the grid. But he soon came under pressure from polesitter Rea, who had successfully recovered from a poor start that had left him fifth at the end of lap 1.

Having gotten a great exit out of the final corner on lap 5, Rea closed in rapidly on Razgatlioglu, who subsequently went wide at Turn 1 and opened the door for the Kawasaki rider.

However, the overtaking attempt ended in disaster as they both crashed out after making contact at the exit of the corner, in what was the most controversial incident between the pair in WSBK’s history.

This promoted Iker Lecuona into the surprise lead, but Bautista was able to repass the Honda rider with ease within a single lap and romp to a third victory of the 2022 season.

The result also leaves Bautista 18 points clear of Rea at the top of the standings, with reigning champion Razgatlioglu - yet to score a win this year - already dropping 45 points off the lead.

Second place in the race went to Razgatlioglu’s factory Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli, who demoted Lecuona four laps from the finish to secure his best result of the season.

Lecuona, however, had enough reasons to be content with his finishing position as he clinched the first podium of his rookie WSBK season - as well as the first for Honda since Bautista’s pair of third-place finishes with the Japanese manufacturer in the latter half of the 2021 campaign.

Behind, Alex Lowes rebounded strongly from a double retirement to clinch a solid fourth place in the sole remaining Kawasaki, finishing less than two seconds off the podium.

Motocross Ducati’s Axel Bassani earned the honour of the top independent rider in fifth in a race that saw both Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) and Loris Baz (Bonovo BMW) retire early on with unrelated crashes.

Meanwhile, Scott Redding delivered his best performance as a BMW rider as he charged from the outside of the top 10 to finish sixth, just two tenths behind Bassani after running as high as fourth in the race.

He was followed by the second factory Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and teammate Michael van der Mark, the latter still not fully fit from the pre-season injury that forced him to miss the Aragon round a fortnight ago.

The top 10 was completed by Honda rider Xavi Vierge and Lucas Mahias on the Puccetti Kawasaki, as Leon Haslam rounded off his comeback weekend with a 13th place finish aboard the Pedercini Kawasaki.

Assen WSBK - Race 2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati
2	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	8.770
3	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	11.580
4	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	13.329
5	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	14.490
6	45	Scott Redding	BMW	14.672
7	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	23.374
8	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	28.511
9	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	29.067
10	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	29.434
11	2	Roberto Tamburini	Yamaha	36.810
12	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	36.814
13	91	Leon Haslam	Kawasaki	37.000
14	29	Luca Bernardi	Ducati	38.862
15	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	41.674
16	16	Gabriele Ruiu	BMW	51.252
17	35	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda	51.382
18	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki
	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki
	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha
	5	Philipp Oettl	Ducati
	76	Loris Baz	BMW
	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha
	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha
View full results