What a weekend at the opening of the World Superbike Championship, with Alex Lowes ending his winless streak by winning at Phillip Island on Sunday, in a race that was marked by a red flag – after Jonathan Rea crashed – and an overtaking move that earned him first place… and the lead in the world championship.
The race started with Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) getting the holeshot straight away, with Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) as his main rival, along with Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
Razgatlioglu, however, had to end his race due to a technical problem with his BMW M 1000 RR and was therefore forced to retire, while Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) was fourth, but the Briton was unlucky to crash at the end of lap three, when Bautista ended up in first position on lap four, before the red flag was raised.
The grid for the restarted race was based on the standings before the red flag, with Bautista lining up on the front row alongside Locatelli and Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven), who had a great start and moved up the standings in the first three laps, including a double overtake on Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team Motocorsa Racing) and Rea. Bautista kept the lead, but the standout was Rinaldi, who climbed from sixth to second place, thus challenging Bautista for the lead.
Rinaldi remained less than half a second behind his former teammate, although he was attempting a last-ditch attack for first place, which he never managed. Further back, Alex Lowes was closing in on Rinaldi. The #22 would end up not only getting close but actually overtaking him on the eighth lap, at a stage when Locatelli was falling behind and not being as competitive.
The front trio began to pull away, with Iannone falling behind due to a mechanical problem with his bike that had been affecting him since the sixth lap.
Shortly afterwards Locatelli, who had already overtaken Rinaldi, crashed trying to overtake Alex Lowes – which put Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) in third – and “freed up” Bautista to fight more closely with the Kawasaki rider.
The Briton would eventually get the better of the world champion and win the race, with the winning overtake coming on the last lap. Bautista tried to respond and return the move, but to no avail.
This was Lowes’ fourth WSBK victory, with three of them coming at the legendary Australian circuit. It was also the Briton’s 36th podium, while he secured Kawasaki’s 180th.