Rinaldi,
Bautista
Winners at
Aragon
WorldSBK
A
ruba Ducati's Michael Ruben
Rinaldi and Alvaro Bautista
took center stage over the Sep
-
tember 23-24 weekend at the
Aragon round of the WorldSBK.
Had Bautista not fallen off and
scored zero points in race one,
he would have all but secured his
second straight WorldSBK title.
In race one, Bautista pushed
his way forward immediately and
led the first five laps. On the sixth
lap, entering turn nine, he lost
the front but fought it all the way
until he reached the kitty litter.
Jonathan Rea (KRT) and To
-
prak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha)
could not believe their luck, but
it was the onrushing Rinaldi who
was surging. The Italian passed
Razgatlioglu on lap six and then
Rea with four laps to go.
Razgatlioglu also got around
the green bike, Rea, with three
laps from the end, making it
Rinaldi, Razgatlioglu and Rea at
the checkers.
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Ya
-
maha by Prometeon) was fourth
and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark
Ducati) fifth.
In Sunday's Superpole race,
Bautista kept it upright the whole
way to take the win, but not with
-
out some drama along the way.
The top three, Rea, Bautista
and Razgatlioglu, pulled away
from the field as they fought for
the win in an epic battle. With
four laps to go, an attempted
pass by Bautista on Rea saw Rea
fighting back around the outside,
muscling his way into the lead
again, and then Razgatlioglu
made use of Bautista's bad line
to take second.
The three, way up front, con
-
tinued to battle to the end when
Bautista passed Razgatlioglu
with a big move in the infield,
and then used all his V4-R power,
experience and slipstreaming to
pass Rea on the outside of the
straight. He held the blocking
line and then eased away under
power again to take the win.
Rea was second and
Razgatlioglu third. Andrea Lo
-
catelli (Pata Yamaha) was fourth,
one second ahead of Rinaldi and
two seconds up on Honda's Iker
Lecuona.
In race two, there was far less
WIND
IN THE
P36
Alvaro Bautista (1) came
away with a couple of wins
at the Aragon WorldSBK
round.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
