Championship leader Bautista takes 12th win of the season, as Ducati take first and second at home in Italy
Championship leader Alvaro Bautista claimed his 12th win of the season at the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna round of the World Superbike Championship. The Ducati rider took his 70th WorldSBK podium boosting his lead to a 78-point advantage over Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Bautista’s teammate Michael Rinaldi took second, ahead of Razgatlioglu in third, making it a Ducati one-two at their home race, much to the delight of huge partisan crowd. The Ducati pair sported a special yellow livery for the Saturday race to pay homage to Ducati’s history.
After some start line drama, the race was yellow flagged before it got underway, reducing the number of laps to 20. After the restart the front three soon gapped the pack, before Razgatlioglu dropped off the back of the dominant Ducatis.
Danilo Petrucci ran in fourth for most of the race, but crashed out of contention later in the race, giving that place to Axel Bassani. Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea struggled with a clearly underpowered bike, finally finishing in fifth.
Razgatlioglu’s third place means he closes in on a century of WorldSBK podiums, while it was Yamaha’s 349th race podium.
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