The World Superbike season has just started but we’re already having trouble to define what Alvaro Bautista and Aruba.it Ducati team has been doing. After winning all three races at the inaugural round of the World Superbike season in Phillip Island, Australia, Alvaro Bautista has done it again, this time in Thailand, and in a circuit that we’re used to seeing Kawasaki and Jonathan Rea dominate.
But this past weekend things didn’t go well for the reigning champion and his Kawasaki Racing Team, as Bautista and his Panigale V4 R were simply untouchable again. Unlike what happened in Australia, in Thailand, the Spaniard started the race weekend by dominating the free practices, and later he also went on to conquer the Superpole, the first of his short World Superbike career.
With temperatures rising higher than 36ºC, Chang was a true test to the performance of the machines as well as rider’s fitness. Alvaro Bautista was again in a level of his own, winning Race 1 with an 8-second advantage over Jonathan Rea, and with Alex Lowes (PATA Yamaha World SBK) finishing in third. As promised the days before this race, Rea adopted a more aggressive riding style in Thailand, trying to intimidate Bautista. While fighting for Race 1 lead, both rivals touched at Turn 3, a move that Bautista thought was a bit over aggressive, but the Spaniard recovered from that and answered back at the Kawasaki rider at the exact same corner, and with 12 laps to go Alvaro Bautista took his Ducati Panigale V4 R to another race win.
On Sunday morning it was time for another Superpole race, and again with 10 laps, riders didn’t show any problems going all out and fight for top positions. On such a short race, Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea again showed they’re the two best riders of the field, but again the Ducati rider was a bit faster than the Kawasaki rider, securing yet another win for the official Ducati team. Alex Lowes repeated the third spot.
On the third race of the weekend, Race 2, riders faced another 20 laps around Chang circuit. Unlike in Race 1, Alvaro Bautista controlled a little bit better what Jonathan Rea was doing, and by gaining precious tenths lap after lap, the Spaniard made sure the champion didn’t have a try at his first spot. Bautista eventually crossed the line with over 10 seconds on Jonathan Rea, who himself had to deal with Alex Lowes.
The British rider showed a great pace on his Yamaha YZF-R1 bike, putting pressure on Rea for most of the race distance. But the champion always seems to have a little extra performance, and on the final laps, Jonathan Rea gained some precious tenths of advantage over Lowes, so they repeated the same results as the two previous races here in Thailand.
The championship standings show Alvaro Bautista leading with an amazing 124 points, following his six straight wins, with Jonathan Rea in second (98 points), while Alex Lowes trails them in third and with 69 points to his personal account.
The next World Superbike round will happen on April 5th to 7th, at the Spanish Motorland Aragon circuit.
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