Bautista completes Donington Park double as Petrucci claims first podium

Alvaro Bautista returned to winning ways in Race 2 of the British WorldSBK round, while Danilo Petrucci claimed his maiden podium after overcoming Jonathan Rea.

Robert Jones

02 Jul 2023

Alvaro Bautista, Ducati WorldSBK Donington Park 2023

After winning his second race of the year during the Superpole Race, Razgatlioglu lined up on pole for the first time this weekend, which was a position he lost immediately to Bautista.

But as the world champion ran slightly wide on the exit of turn one, Razgatlioglu powered back through.

Before lap one was completed red flags were waived due to a big crash involving Loris Baz, Tom Sykes and Michael Ruben Rinaldi coming out of turn eight.

Baz was the first rider back to his feet, as Sykes and Rinaldi needed assistance. An ambulance was needed as Rinaldi was stretchered into the vehicle after a significant delay.

The incident started when Sykes violently highsided which meant Rinaldi had to slow down and was hit by Baz, who also had to do the same in order to avoid the British rider.

Shortly after Rinaldi was taken into the ambulance a message confirming that all three riders were conscious was displayed.

It's believed that Sykes was also taken away in a second ambulance, after the 2013 world champion initially stood up from his highside before going to his knees and seeking help from marshals.

When the race restarted with the original grid positions in place, Bautista was again the leader but this time he kept hold of P1 coming out of turn one.

Rea, who was also through on Razgatlioglu, tried an ambitious move on Bautista into turn four before running wide and handing the lead back to the Ducati rider.

Rea’s attempts at taking the lead suffered a further blow when Razgatlioglu came through to regain second at the end of the lap.

A very late move on lap two saw Razgatlioglu stand Bautista up at the Melbourne Loop, which allowed Rea to take second spot.

Like in Race 1, the pace being set by Razgatlioglu was allowing a big group to remain at the head of the field.

That group included Andrea Locatelli, Garrett Gerloff, Alex Lowes and Petrucci, along with Rea and Bautista who remained second and third.

However, that all changed with 16 laps to go as the top three began to pull clear. In the battle for fourth, Locatelli succumbed to the pressure applied by Lowes as the Kawasaki rider made his move on lap eight.

Eager to push on, Bautista began his victory charge by getting through on Rea at turn nine. As Rea lost ground following the overtake, Bautista instead closed in on Razgatlioglu.

With ten laps to go Bautista made his first move into turn one, but Razgatlioglu fired his Yamaha back to the inside of him at turn four to take back P1.

Bautista only had to wait one lap longer before making the same move, however, this time he held off Razgatlioglu for the remainder of the lap.

In the battle for third, Petrucci was beginning to come on strong as he overtook Lowes before shaping up for a move on Rea at turn one.

It was a move that failed to come off but Petrucci only had to wait three more corners before making his first overtake a successful one.

Also making a strong push was Scott Redding, as he too overtook Lowes with five laps to go. One lap later and Redding put the exact same move on Rea as he did Lowes, which came at the Melbourne Loop.