Latest 2019 WorldSBK Standings (After Round 6 of 13)

Latest 2019 World Superbike Championship Standings

For all of his dominance this weekend, the fact Alvaro Bautista leaves Round 6 of the 2019 World Superbike Championship with a trimmed points' lead seems a bit of a cruel injustice.

Nevertheless, as the man himself pointed out, it could have been worse as Rea suffered his 'worst' weekend in some years after struggling to match Ducati and - unusually - Yamaha's pace even before he became embroiled in that controversial clash with Alex Lowes. Differece was, Rea stayed up (just) meaning a 4-4-2 trumps a 1-1-DNF by two points.

As such, the championship lead is down from 43 to 41 points heading to Misano, where the Kawasaki is expected to perform better than at a scorching Jerez.

The big winner over the weekend should have been Pata Yamaha as a whole but it was Michael van der Mark that ended up leaving Spain with the biggest smile after two already impressive second place results were followed up by a brilliant win in race three. A Bautista-less race it may have been, but beating Rea in a fair fight will be seen as a satisfying outcome.

By contrast, team-mate Alex Lowes endured a crushing weekend that went downhill the moment he was biffed off by Rea at the end of race one. Crashes in races two and three threatened see Lowes leave with a shoulder injury but no points, though he did recover two digits for a 14th place finish two laps in arrears. Either way, van der Mark has come from behind to suddenly be 46 points clear in third.

Marco Melandri enjoyed a positive weekend, at least up until his collision with Chaz Davies in race three, with his first podiums since round one to scale to sixth overall. Meanwhile, a second rostrum to two events means Toprak Razgatlioglu has jumped from 11th to seventh in just five races.

Further back, Loris Baz got points on the board - including a top ten finish - in his first weekend for the reformed Ten Kate SBK team, while Tommy Bridewell can call himself a WorldSBK top ten finisher for the first time too. Making his WorldSBK debut this weekend, ex-MotoGP rider Yuki Takahashi is also on the board thanks to a 13th place finish in race three.