MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The opening World Superbike race would be two ten-lap sprint races glued together with a pit stop as the track is too abrasive for the Pirelli tyres. Pit intervention time, with a maximum of eleven laps allowed on the tyres, is sixty three seconds, with the penalty being five times the time you gained. The weather was a warm 35ºC and a hot track.

Nicolo Bulega led Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista into turn one with Toprak Razgatlioglu holding off Danilo Petrucci before taking third place from Bautista. Remy Gardner crashed out at turn four, recovering in last place.

Alvaro Bautista took third place from Razgatlioglu into turn one as Nicolo Bulega blasted off leaving Iannone over a second off by a lap. Iannone then had an issue, slowing down as Razgatlioglu and Bautista charged past.

Lap three, after setting a fastest lap of 1'29.345, Nicolo Bulega led bye over three seconds over Toprak Razgatlioglu, Danilo Petrucci, Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding. A lap later, the lead was four seconds as Redding took third from Bautista. Four laps down, almost five seconds of lead as Nicolo Bulega lapped a second quicker than the rest of the grid. Razgatlioglu led the second group, with Redding and Bautista on his tail. Bautista took the lead down the straight and put himself inside Razgatlioglu, pushing him wide and being followed by Redding and Petrucci, pushing the world champion back to fifth place behind four Ducatis with his teammate Michael van der Mark behind him.

Redding and Bautista swapped places back and forth into turn four as Razgatlioglu and vand er Mark pushed past Petrucci. Razgatlioglu closed up on Bautista and Redding on lap eight, passing Redding into turn one as van der Mark crashed out at hight speed into turn one. Pit boards were held out to call riders in next lap.

Bulega, Bautista and Petrucci pulled in as Razgatlioglu and Redding remained on track, swapping back and forth at Miller corner, turn four, before pitting in. Alex Lowes remained out, getting gifted the lead before riders returned to the race from the pits.

As the live timing settled, Nicolo Bulega had a six and a half second lead over Razgatlioglu with Redding passing Bautista on the exit of the pits. Petrucci, Locatelli and Iannone held off the Bimotas of Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani.

Remy Gardner blew up his engine on lap twelve.

Lap fourteen, Bulega led Razgatlioglu by six and a half seconds with Bautista, Redding, Petrucci and Iannone over a second further back. Alex Lowes got a six tenths of a second penalty for a pit intervention time infringement as a bit of plastic fell off Redding's Ducati.

With five laps left, Nicolo Bulega led Toprak Razgatlioglu by over six seconds. Bautista was a second further back, leading Redding, Petrucci and Iannone. Andrea Locatelli led Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani. Sam Lowes in tenth place was over four seconds off the Bimotas.

Four laps to go, the gaps grew by a tenth of a second and a lap later, Petrucci passed Redding into turn four as Bautista closed to just under a second off Razgatlioglu.

Two laps remaining, Bautista closed to under seven tenths of a second of Razgatlioglu. Four tenths a lap quicker and under eight tenths between them meant the podium was still undetermined behind Bulega, and they started the last lap with half a second separating them.

Nicolo Bulega win convincingly, taking it easy on the last lap to win by under five seconds over Toprak Razgatlioglu who convincingly held off Alvaro Bautista on the last lap. Almost two seconds off the podium, the three Ducatis of Danilo Petrucci, Scott Redding and Andrea Iannone rounded out the top six. Razgatlioglu's pit stop was better timed than Bautista's and that may have determined the race result. 

Five Ducatis in the top six made for a typical Phillip Island result, but the world champion held them from a clean sweep. Nicolo Bulega leads the championship and, with the pace he's shown all week, it's likely he will be unbeaten when they leave the island.

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