Jerez WSBK: Van der Mark wins red-flagged race, Bautista crashes

Ducati rider Bautista, who dominated the first two races of the Jerez weekend, lost the lead to Marco Melandri's GRT Yamaha at the start but retook the position at Turn 5.

But Bautista ended up crashing at the first corner next time around, giving the lead to his main title rival Jonathan Rea.

Bautista's crash was followed by a duel between Rea and van der Mark, who was all over the Kawasaki rider.

After an overtake at Turn 6 was quickly countered by Rea, van der Mark spent several laps in second before making another move on lap 7.

Rea then also put pressure on van der Mark, the duo separated by less than half a second for eight laps. But Rea started to struggle in the lattet stages and van der Mark built a lead of two seconds in just two laps.

Van der Mark rode on his own for the rest of the race, which was shortened by two laps due to a red flag coming out after Ryuichi Kiyonari crashed at Turn 11, throwing lots of gravel on track.

The Dutchman secured his third WSBK win, his first since his Donington Park double last year.

Puccetti Kawasaki's Toprak Razgatlioglu couldn't fight for the win but comfortably scored the second podium finish of his campaign in third.

His top-three finish was secured when Melandri and Chaz Davies, the two riders he was riding with early on, crashed.

Melandri divebombed on the inside of Ducati rider Davies at the fast Turn 5 right-hander, forcing both of them off-track.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) took his best finish of the season in fourth, closely followed by Leon Haslam (Kawasaki) and Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha).

Tom Sykes (BMW) was seventh, holding off Jordi Torres (Pedercini Kawasaki), while the top 10 was completed by Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha) and British Superbike regular Tommy Bridewell (GoEleven Ducati).

Alex Lowes (Yamaha) crashed two corners into the race but rejoined the track and finished 14th, two laps down.

Despite his first retirement of the season, Bautista still maintains a sizable 41-point lead over Rea in the standings.

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	60	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	18
2	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	18	2.931
3	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Kawasaki	18	8.201
4	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	18	13.483
5	91	Leon Haslam	Kawasaki	18	13.698
6	11	Sandro Cortese	Yamaha	18	14.339
7	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	18	15.113
8	81	Jordi Torres	Kawasaki	18	16.070
9	76	Loris Baz	Yamaha	18	20.778
10	46	Tommy Bridewell	Ducati	18	23.381
11	36	Leandro Mercado	Kawasaki	18	25.014
12	28	Markus Reiterberger	BMW	18	29.328
13	72	Yuki Takahashi	Honda	18	29.923
14	22	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	16	2 Laps
	23	Ryuichi Kiyonari	Honda	19
	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	9	9 Laps
	52	Alessandro Del Bianco	Honda	7	11 Laps
	33	Marco Melandri	Yamaha	5	13 Laps
	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	5	13 Laps
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