Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista has stunned the WorldSBK paddock after decimating the field in a clean sweep of race wins at the opening Yamaha Finance round of the 2019 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.
Having trouble viewing this email? View Online |
| | | | | | | Bautista blitzes opposition in
WorldSBK Debut
Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista has stunned the WorldSBK paddock after decimating the field in a clean sweep of race wins at the opening Yamaha Finance round of the 2019 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.
In perfect conditions for Saturday’s Race 1, the factory Ducati rider led from start to finish in the 22-lap race to win by nearly 15 seconds over world champion and polesitter Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki), while the fast-finishing Italian Marco Melandri (Yamaha) was third.
It is the largest winning margin in a dry race at Phillip Island in the circuit’s 56 WorldSBK race history*.
* There are three larger winning margins at Phillip Island, but they were all set in the wet. Australia’s Anthony Gobert holds the mark for the largest victory, after he won by 29.542 secs on the Bimota back in 2000 defeating the great Carl Fogarty. |
|
|
|
|
| In This Edition | » WorldSBK: Bautista blitzes opposition in WorldSBK Debut | | » WorldSSP - Krummenacher masters Phillip Island | | » Australian Superbike - Wagner dominates opening round | | » Australian SSP - Clean sweep for Toparis | | » Australian SSP 300 - Stauffer claims overall in tough battle | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sunday’s action kicked-off with the new-era of world superbike racing, the 10-lap Tissot Superpole Race. Spanish superstar Alvaro Bautista continued his dominance taking out the sprint race ahead of Kawasaki pair Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam.
Just a day after becoming the first rider to win his maiden WorldSBK race, Bautista was again at the peak of his powers on the all-new Ducati Panigale V4 R, although four-time world champion Rea didn’t let him have it all his own way.
Rea led over the line on the opening two laps and then edged his ZX-10RR in front a few more times before Bautista eventually took control – but that didn’t stop the Northern Irishman setting a new lap record of 1min30.075secs on lap eight at an average speed of 177.65km/h.
Bautista won by 1.176 seconds over Rea, with Haslam another four seconds in arrears in third.
Debutante Alvaro Bautista completed the Phillip Island hat-trick, taking honours in Race 2 on Sunday afternoon. After securing poll in the Tissot Superpole Race earlier in the day, the 34-year-old Spaniard got the holeshot from the front row of the grid at Phillip Island and was untouchable on the Panigale V4 R.
After the first of 13 rounds, Bautista leads the 2019 WorldSBK title on 62 points from Rea (49), Melandri (30), Lowes (30), van der Mark (29), Haslam (24), Cortese (19), Davies (15), Tom Sykes (12), and Laverty (12).
|
|
|
|
|
| | WorldSSP - Krummenacher masters Phillip Island |
|
|
|
|
| Swiss rider Randy Krummenacher has celebrated his 29th birthday in fine style by winning the opening round of the 2019 Supersport World Championship at Phillip Island.
His second WorldSSP victory at Phillip Island – and his third overall in the class – came with 6.157 seconds to spare over Frenchman Jules Cluzel, with Federico Caricasulo, former MotoGP rider Hector Barbera and Thomas Gradinger completing a whitewash of the top five positions by Yamaha in the 16-lap race.
Australia’s Tom Toparis (Yamaha) backed up after a clean sweep of the Aussie Supersport category over the weekend, finishing in a superb 11th position with his wildcard entry to score four world championship points.
Leaving round one, Krummenacher leads the 2019 World Supersport Championship on 25 points from Cluzel (20 points) and Caricasulo (16 points)
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | Australian Superbike - Wagner dominates opening round |
|
|
|
|
| Yamaha privateer Aiden Wagner has completed an extraordinary return to the local road racing ranks by claiming the overall victory in round one of the 2019 Australian Superbike Championship at Phillip Island.
The Queenslander finished the weekend with a 2-1-2 scorecard at Phillip Island on his YZF-R1 – his first local Superbike event since March 2015 before he went WorldSSP racing.
The weekend wasn’t without drama for the 24-year-old, with race two ending in a dramatic fashion after his Suzuki rival Wayne Maxwell came into contact on the final turn.
A determined Wagner came up on the inside of race one winner Maxwell, the pair touched, and Maxwell went down – his bike cartwheeling through the outfield in spectacular, fairing and chassis-crunching fashion.
Wagner remained upright and won the race by 0.261 seconds ahead of Cru Halliday (Yamaha), Josh Waters (Suzuki), Bryan Staring (Kawasaki), Mike Jones (Kawasaki) and defending champion Troy Herfoss (Honda).
Troy Bayliss’s plans for a strong start to the 2019 season went array following a series of crashes aboard his Panigale FE. The three-time world superbike champion had a fall in Friday’s practice resulting in a broken finger, followed by a spectacular crash at turn one during Saturday’s race one after clipping the rear of Maxwell’s GSX-R1000 under brakes. Adding to his previous injury, another broken finger left Bayliss unable to take no further part in the weekend.
Wagner now takes a 16-point lead (71 to 55) over fellow Yamaha rider Cru Halliday into round two at Wakefield Park, near Goulburn (NSW), from March 22-24.
Josh Waters (Suzuki, 50pts) was third overall in round one, followed by Kawasaki pair Mike Jones (49pts) and Bryan Staring (48ts).
|
|
|
|
|
| | Australian Supersport - Clean sweep for Toparis |
|
|
|
|
| | | | | Despite double duties in Australian Supersport and World Supersport, 18-year-old Toparis completed an absolute precision performance to make it a clean sweep of three victories in the Australian Supersport class to take the overall win.
A consistent display from the Goulburn local put him well ahead of the rest of the field, crossing the finish line in race three more than six seconds ahead of his rivals.
Second place for the round belonged to Nic Liminton (Yamaha Motor Aust. Yamaha YZF-R6), who had a trio of second places but had to fight in race three, bumping Callum Spriggs (Allsite Concrete Cutting Yamaha YZF-R6) down to third in the last-minute dash for the finish line despite Spriggs sitting comfortably in second for most of the last race. |
|
|
|
|
| | Australian Supersport 300 - Stauffer claims overall in tough battle |
|
|
|
|
| | | Youngest Max Stauffer (Yamaha, Yamaha R3 321) claims the overall victory in Yamaha Motor Insurance (YMI) Supersport 300 after three fierce races.
The opening race for 2019 saw Stauffer take the first win of the year by the skin of his teeth from challenger Luke Power, with the duo putting on a stunning display of riding and finishing more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Stauffer continued to fight in race two, taking the victory on the line and edging out John Lytras, Callum O’Brien and Harry Khouri who all finished less than a tenth of a second behind.
Lytras claimed Race 3 to break Stauffer’s winning streak and banked 56 points for the weekend, leaving him in second place behind Stauffer’s 67. Luke Power’s pair of podiums helped him to third overall with 55 points. |
|
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | |
|
