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Two commanding Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) race victories at Misano for Alvaro Bautista see the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider continue to control the 2022 series, with Dominique Aegerter doing the double in WorldSSP and Matteo Vannucci and Alvaro Diaz split the WorldSSP300 wins.

Race one saw Bautista finish ahead of Kawasaki Racing Team’s (KRT) Jonathan Rea by 5.1 seconds, making a decisive move just past half race distance, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) completing the podium a further 3.2 seconds back. Notably, current WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) suffered a mechanical DNF with eight laps to go, forcing him to retire from third.

Razgatlioglu bounced back in the Superpole Race to take a much-needed victory ahead of Bautista and Rea. After an early battle with Rea, the Turkish rider took the lead and extended to win by 2 seconds in the 10-lap outing.

The final outing for the premier class saw Toprak control the lead for much of the opening six laps before Bautista moved in front on lap seven. The Yamaha rider kept the gap to the Spaniard within a second to lap 12 before he ultimately crossed the line in second, 7.194 seconds behind the Bautista. Rinaldi finished third, ahead of Rea in fourth and Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) who completed the top five.

After four rounds of the 2022 WorldSBK Championship, Bautista leads Rea by 36 points, with Razgatlioglu a further 43 adrift, the race one DNF costly in his bid to defend the title.

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Current WorldSSP champion Dominique Aegerter continued his winning streak despite Lorenzo Baldassari (Evan Bros WorldSSP Yamaha Team) crossing the line first in race one. The Italian was later demoted a position for exceeding track limits on the final lap. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) finished within a tenth of the lead in P3, just 0.080 seconds from victory.

Aegerter again won race two, this time taking the chequered flag 0.338 seconds ahead of Baldassari, with Bulega third once more. Looking at the WorldSSP championship standings Aegerter has a 54-point advantage over Baldassari, with Bulega third 91 points from the lead.

After qualifying a strong P10, it was a tough two WorldSSP races for Australia’s Oli Bayliss. A small crash in race one saw followed by a fall in race two meant the Barni Spark Racing rider was unable to score in round four.

In his second WorldSSP round, Motozoo Racing by Puccetti rider Ben Currie banked a P26 in race two after a fall in the opening bout, the Australian continuing to build after severe injuries sustained while training in the pre-season.

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The WorldSSP300 victories were split by Matteo Vannucci (AG Motorsport Italia Yamaha) and points leader Alvaro Diaz (Arco Motor University Team).

The first outing saw Vannucci take the win by just 0.020 seconds ahead of Diaz, with Samuel Di Sora (Leader Team Flembbo) third, as Diaz took a four-tenth victory ahead of MTM Kawasaki’s Yuta Okaya, with teammate Victor Steeman completing the rostrum.

Diaz holds a 20 point advantage over former champion Marc Garcia (Yamaha MS Racing) in the standings, with Di Sora third, 24 points from the lead.

It was a tough weekend for Australian Harry Khouri (Team 109 Kawasaki) in WorldSSP300 as he crashed out of both races, with Archie Mcdonald (ProGP Racing) scoring 15-8 results in the R3 bLU cRU Cup.

Detailed results