Image: Supplied.

Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista has made it nine race victories in a row after securing wins in both the Superpole race and race two during Sunday’s proceedings at Aragon’s third round of the 2019 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK).

The Spaniard controlled the Superpole race with a 5.791s victory over reigning champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official), while the top five was completed by Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK).

Bautista took the advantage from pole position in race two, seeing-off Rea into turn one. For the first time in the weekend in the blue-riband class, everyone made their way through the opening corners safely and without drama. Davies was an early improver and up to third place, whilst Lowes was a strong fourth despite dropping back.

The penultimate lap beckoned, and it was Rea and Davies who renewed their rivalry. Rea put his trademark passing move on Davies at turn four, slicing under the Welshman, only for the 2011 WorldSSP champion to fight back at turn five.

Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team), after initially being dropped by half-a-second, was now right back in the battle for the podium; something he hadn’t stood on since race two at Phillip Island.

On the final lap, a mistake by Davies at turn one allowed Rea to come straight through and put in the lap of his life to put distance into Davies. Haslam wasn’t able to capitalise on the mistake by Davies and whilst Davies was coming back towards Rea into the final corner, there was nothing he could do to get ahead.

Bautista took the win, ahead of Rea by another huge margin – the ninth time that those two have finished in that order in 2019. Davies completed the podium for the second time at the Aragon round, whilst Haslam and Lowes completed the top five.

Laverty took sixth, ahead of Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) – taking his fourth consecutive top 10 finish for the first time since 2017, during race two and Portimao. Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official) completed his weekend with an eighth place, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) and Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK).

The FIM Supersport World Championship (WorldSSP) saw an intriguing race in the first part of the 16-lap encounter, before a traditional fairing-bashing battle took place in the final part of the race. Eventually, it was Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team) who took the win to extend his championship lead at the top of the WorldSSP title race.

Raffaele De Rosa (MV AGUSTA Reparto Corse) took his first podium of the year in second, with fellow countryman Federico Caricasulo (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team) in third. Thomas Gradinger (Kallio Racing) was fourth ahead of Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha).

It was a crazy return to action for the WorldSSP300 championship at Aragon, with a flurry of action from the start to the end, making for an incredibly exciting season in prospect. The winner of the first race of the season was Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) from Hugo De Cancellis (Team Trasimeno) and Scott Deroue (Kawasaki MOTOPORT).

Australians Tom Edwards (ParkinGo Team Kawasaki) and Tom Bramich (Nutec – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki) wound up in positions 19 and 24. The WorldSBK now heads to Assen in The Netherlands next weekend for round four of the series.

Detailed results