Bautista Blasts In Donington
Y
ou could feel the anticipa-
tion in the June 30 – July 2
weekend crowd at Donington for
round six of the WorldSBK Cham-
pionship. There was a feeling
that someone could displace the
astounding combination of Alvaro
Bautista and his official Aruba
Ducati. No big straights and not a
great recent Ducati record there
for anyone in Italian red.
A dry Saturday Superpole saw
a novelty that was once com-
monplace, Jonathan Rea (Kawa-
saki Racing Team) securing a
pre-race "win."
On the new asphalt, he posted
a 1:26.041, which was just
0.068 ahead of Alvaro Bautista.
With Rea also fastest on Friday,
thanks to his FP1 relatively-dry-
weather best time, the stage
appeared set for a bit of a scrap
up front, for at least most of the
opening 23-lap race.
For a few laps it was a classic,
with Bautista, then Rea, then To
-
prak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha)
leading, with everyone else pass-
ing or trying to pass with regular-
ity. The breakaway group up front
got caught again by the following
bunch: Alex Lowes (Kawasaki
Racing Team), Danilo Petrucci
(Barni Ducati), Alex Bassani
(Motocorsa Ducati), Tom Sykes
(Rockit BMW) and Dominique Ae-
gerter (GRT Yamaha) for a while.
On lap nine, Bautista took a
lead he would not relinquish,
punching out new lap records
on three occasions, the final one
coming on lap 16 with a 1:26.550.
Razgatlioglu placed second
at the flag, three seconds down,
and Rea was a similar amount
behind, for his fifth podium of a
so-far difficult year.
Petrucci was fourth, closing in
slowly on Rea but deciding not
to try too hard to catch or pass
him, given his loss of a potential
podium finish at the most recent
round in Misano. Fourth was still
WIND
IN THE
P28
Alvaro Bautista's advantage
was lesser in England, but
he still walked away with
two wins from three starts.
