Rea claims pole - Bautista dominates Race 1

Reigning World Champion Jonathan Rea took a history-making pole position, running a 1min29.413 to claim the fastest production-based superbike time for circulating the 4.448km grand prix circuit at the season-opening MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Yamaha Finance round at Phillip Island.

WorldSBK Race 1 – Phillip Island, Race 1

Rea’s 1min29.413 on the ZX-10RR bested his previous benchmark (1:29.573) set in 2017, and marks his 17th pole position in WorldSBK racing, and his third at Phillip Island.

Rea’s extraordinary lap in the last few minutes of the 25-minute session saw him shoot to the top of the timesheets after Alex Lowes (Yamaha), Alvaro Bautista (Ducati) and Leon Haslam (Kawasaki) had taken turns at the top.

Haslam (1:29.626) and Bautista (1:29.729), who had been the dominant force in practice, will join Rea on the front row for this afternoon’s opening 22-lap race, with row two to be filled by 2018 polesitter Tom Sykes (BMW, 1:29.822), Lowes (1:29.987) and rookie Sandro Cortese (Yamaha, 1:30.159).

Leon Haslam – Image by Geebee

The first Honda, ridden by factory pilot Leon Camier, will start from 10th on the grid in the 19-bike field.

Last year’s Phillip Island winner Marco Melandri (Yamaha) will start from the third row after qualifying in ninth, while world No. 2 Chaz Davies (Ducati) has some serious work to do after completing the session well back in 16^th position (row six).

Although Aussie wildcard Troy Herfoss (Honda) failed to meet the 107 per cent qualifying cut-off (ie 107 per cent of Rea’s best lap), the national superbike champion been given dispensation to compete in race one.

WorldSBK Superbikes Race 1

Alvaro Bautista lived up to all the hype generated after topping the practice time sheets by giving the World Superbike veterans a masterclass performance as he dazzled Down Under on his Ducati. The Spaniard became part of a select group of riders to win their debut WorldSBK race and is the first Ducati rider to do so since John Kocinski at Misano in 1996.

Alvaro Bautista – Phillip Island WorldSBK 2019 – Race 1

Leading from start to finish and coming home with the biggest dry-weather win at Phillip Island, the 34-year-old grinned from ear to ear as he spoke about his first world championship win in nearly a decade, sharing, “For sure the feeling is quite good, I am so happy with this victory because it is my first race in World Superbike. We work so hard during the winter test; my team and Ducati work hard to give a competitive bike, already for the first race! It is the first time with this bike at this track, but I felt very, very good from the first time I rode here with this bike. I can keep the pace for a lot of laps, it is not easy because you have to push! We will see tomorrow because I think the other riders in the Tissot Superpole race will push more because there are less laps. In any case, we will try to keep this for the next two races!”

Alvaro Bautista – Phillip Island WorldSBK 2019 – Race 1

Bautista’s arrival to WorldSBK has been celebrated greatly but now he is a winner and thus, the championship leader, the spotlight shines on him more. Along with the aforementioned records, he is the first rider to come across from Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing and win his debut World Superbike race.

He is the first Spanish Rookie on a Ducati to set the fastest lap of a race at Phillip Island since 2001 when Ruben Xaus achieved the feat. The win also gives Ducati their third consecutive win at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit venue, the first time since 2011 and 2012 that this has happened – back with Carlos Checa.

Second place went to Jonathan Rea, almost 15 seconds in arrears, while third placed Marco Melandri narrowly claimed the final podium position from Alex Lowes.

Jonathan Rea – Phillip Island WorldSBK 2019 – Race 1

Jonathan Rea saying, “I am very happy with my race, to be honest. Looking from Monday through Tuesday at the tests, I thought the best target we could hope for was second, and in the end we achieved that. We arrived at the end of the race with a good tyre and that was the main target today. Now we have 22 laps of race data we can really understand to make some improvements tomorrow. The race today was just to conserve the tyre. The target was to ride very smoothly and arrive at the end of the race. When you see Superpole you see our real potential, in the winter tests and during the season at ‘normal’ tracks.”

Marco Melandri – WorldSBK 2019 – Phillip Island, Race 1

Marco Melandri was happy to claim a podium position, “This was an amazing race for me because throughout the test and the weekend I was struggling a lot on a new tyre. But from the first few laps of the race I understood that I was feeling much better and even with the new tyre I was losing not so much from the top. I was sure that when the fuel load reduced and the tyre dropped down then I’d feel more comfortable. Once I passed van der Mark my pace was much better and my confidence was increasing every lap. When I arrived behind Alex he slowed a lot, I think he had problems with the rear tyre, and when I passed him he tried to push back and we had a crazy last lap, passing each other four times. I knew I was a bit faster than him in the final corner, but I couldn’t wait for the exit like last year because it was very windy and it was difficult to keep the bike stable, so I changed strategy and went into the corner up the inside and very fast and I think I caught him by surprise. It’s an awesome podium for me, for the team and for Yamaha and I’m so happy, but now we have to continue trying to improve.”

Alex Lowes – WorldSBK 2019 – Phillip Island, Race 1

Alex Lowes added, “The guys did a good job with the bike, I had a better pace than I did during the test here, and I enjoyed it today. It’s definitely good to be racing again. There were a few little issues holding me back today and, at the end, I had to dig really deep to try and pass Marco back. I couldn’t have tried any harder than I did, but the grip dropped off a lot in the last four or five laps and I was a bit worried about the tyre not lasting the race, so I tried to be as smooth as I could. It was a shame to miss out on the podium in the final corner of the last lap but, overall, it was a decent start to the season.”

While Alvaro Bautista put in a dominating performance, the next fastest Ducati was Michael Rinaldi in ninth position, while Tom Sykes was seventh on the leading BMW.