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ROAD RACING MOTUL FIM WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1 / FEBRUARY 22-24, 2019 PHILLIP ISLAND / VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA P68 up Krummenacher, by five seconds from Jules Cluzel (GMT94). It was a nice birthday present to himself. "What a great day; it couldn't be any better really," Krummen- acher said. "The pit stop made for a special race, but I tried to stay calm when I came in and my team did a fantastic job of changing the tire; it was the perfect stop." Caricasulo was one of many rid- ers enacting a comedy of errors in pit lane. The wheel was turning as his bike was coming off the stand on a new rear tire and it promptly shot for- ward, with the stand still attached. He was finally third, seven seconds iii My Own Race: 19 ALVARO BAUTISTA 1-1-1 WORLDSBK "It has been a perfect weekend and my Superbike debut couldn't have been better!" Bautista said. "We made a clean sweep of everything by winning race one, the Superpole race and race two. If people had said to me before that I would have won three races, I wouldn't have believed them, but we worked hard during the tests to prepare a fantastic bike. In the Super- pole race I had a lot of fun fighting with Rea, I knew that he was very strong and that he was always pushing. The pace was incredible and I had to concentrate so hard, but in the end I got the better of him. In race two the track conditions were more difficult than in the morning, and it was important to save the tires because of the higher track temperature, so I pushed hard in the early laps to try and manage the situation at the end. I'm so happy with the results, today is a day I will never forget!" 1 JONATHAN REA 2-2-2 WORLDSBK "We made a little change from yesterday to make the bike a little bit calmer, and I feel we achieved that," Rea said at the end of race two. "Our race time was faster than yesterday and I am happy with the results of the weekend. I am a little bit disappointed in the classification because the gap to the front is too much. We expected a really difficult race here. I have always had to fight for results here, so to come away with three second places, a pole position and an outright fastest lap in the Superpole race; I am satisfied. Of course, there is definitely still work to do." 22 ALEX LOWES 4-4-5 WORLDSBK "The guys did a good job with the bike, I had a better pace than I did during the test here, and I enjoyed it today," Lowes said after race two. It's definitely good to be racing again. There were a few little issues holding me back today, and at the end, I had to dig really deep to try and pass Marco back. I couldn't have tried any harder than I did, but the grip dropped off a lot in the last four or five laps and I was a bit worried about the tire not lasting the race, so I tried to be as smooth as I could. It was a shame to miss out on the podium in the final corner of the last lap, but overall, it was a decent start to the season." Randy Krummenacher (21) had company early with Federico Caricasulo (64) and Jules Cluzel (16) but eventually took a five- second win.

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