Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista survived an onslaught from RoKiT BMW’s Toprak Razgatlioglu to win WorldSBK Race 2 at Aragon.
Bautista kept his slim hopes of the championship alive as he denied Razgatlioglu a maiden win in Aragon, but the Turkish rider extended his lead at the top of the standings by finishing ahead of nearest rival Nicolo Bulega.
Bautista got away well from pole position to maintain his lead over Razgatlioglu going into Turn 1, with Bulega holding onto third.
It looked as if the front row would retain their positions after good starts, but Andrea Iannone pulled a bold move on Bulega to overtake the Ducati rider.
Bulega appeared to be struggling with his new set-up and lost another place to RoKiT BMW’s Michael Van der Mark, and ran wide at the next corner causing him to drop further down the order to ninth.
The Ducati rider was looking to recover from his early errors and was able to overtake HRC’s Iker Lecuona and Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli, setting the fastest lap of the race as he attempted to get back on terms with the podium contenders.
Bautista and Razgatlioglu traded lap records as they pulled away from the battle for the podium, which saw Bonovo BMW’s Garrett Gerloff overtake Iannone for third.
Bulega continued to hunt down the podium places and was able to chase down the pair of Gerloff and Iannone to reclaim the third place he had lost on the start.
Razgatlioglu was looking to take his first win at the circuit, but the rear tyre of the RoKiT BMW machine seemed to have reached its limit as the Turkish rider dropped back from leader Bautista in the closing stages.
It was Bautista who took the chequered flag to win his 3.366s clear of Razgatlioglu in second, with Bulega taking the final spot on the podium.
Iannone came home in fourth ahead of Gerloff in fifth, with Danilo Petrucci earning a sixth-placed finish.
Van der Mark took seventh ahead of Lecuona and Locatelli, as the Honda of Xavi Vierge completed the top 10.
Scott Redding finished 11th ahead of the sole factory Kawasaki bike of Axel Bassani in 12th.
Yamaha’s Jonathan Rea continued to nurse his thumb injury and came home in 13th ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, and Remy Gardner rounded out the points positions in 15th.
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