2022 World Superbike Aragon, Spain - Superpole Race Results

Alvaro Bautista wins his first World Superbike race since 2019 after dominating a wild Aragon Superpole race.

After setting a new Aragon World Superbike Lap Record in Superpole, Toprak Razgatlioglu started the second race of the weekend from pole.

And like race one there was immediate change between Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista. 

• 2022 World Superbike Aragon, Spain - Warm-up Results 
• MotoGP Austin: Jorge Martin leads Ducati quintet as Fabio Quartararo crashes 
• 2022 World Superbike Aragon, Spain - Race (1) Results

The Ducati rider was extremely aggressive as he made his way through at turn four, however, Razgatlioglu fought back straight away to regain the lead at turn five. 

Not settling for P2, Bautista made an even more aggressive move at turn seven as the two made contact. 

After being pushed slightly wide, Razgatlioglu was then touched on the rear of his R1 by Jonathan Rea who was eager to join the fun. 

Hoping to win his first race since returning to Ducati, Bautista began to pull the pin at the end of lap one but the pole sitter responded on lap two. 

Trying everything to stay with Bautista, Razgatlioglu started to make several mistakes as he ran wide at turns one and seven. 

Bautista’s lead at the end of lap three was over a second, while team-mate Michael Rinaldi made a brilliant move on Rea for third. 

Rea came back at Rinaldi at turn seven before the latter got completely out of shape on the approach to turn eight. 

Continuing to hammer home his advantage, Bautista led by 1.3 seconds come the end of lap four. 

After a superb race one, BMW rider Ilya Myckalchyk crashed at turn five. 

After getting through on Razgatlioglu for P2, Rea momentarily lost the front at turn seven which allowed the world champion to remain close. 

Remaining close wasn’t enough for the Turkish rider as he pounced at turn 16. While Razgatlioglu, Rea and Rinaldi continued their epic tussle for second, Bautista was over three seconds clear in what was quickly becoming a repeat of 2019 at Aragon. 

As Rea attempted to go down the inside of Razgatlioglu once again, both riders got their braking all wrong for turn one as Rinaldi went from fourth to second.

Official Aragon WorldSBK Records 

Fastest Lap - Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha 1m 48.267s. 

Most Wins - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki (9) 

2021 Aragon WorldSBK Race Winners 

Race 1 - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki

Superpole Race - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki

Race 2 - Scott Redding GBR Ducati 

Sunday Schedule - 2022 Aragon WorldSBK

13:00 - WorldSBK Race 2 (UK) 

Rinaldi unhappy with Rea and Razgatlioglu overtakes

As Bautista went on to win by over five second, Rea regained P2 off of Rinaldi before the Italian was demoted to fourth following contact with Razgatlioglu at the final corner. 

Rinaldi attempted to close the door on the inside of turn 16, but Razgatlioglu forced his Yamaha to fit as he nipped ahead in time for the start-finish line.

Prior to the last lap Rinaldi was visibly annoyed by Rea cutting to the inside at turn seven, as the six-time world champion was close to clipping the front of Rinaldi's Panigale V4 R on more than one occasion. 

Following the final overtake with Razgatlioglu that produced yet more contact, Rinaldi was seen waving his hands and shaking his head after the flag, clearly hinting at the 'hard-but-fair' type of racing being too 'hard'. 

Iker Lecuona, Xavi Vierge and Philipp Oettl made a bold move before the race started as they elected to run Pirelli’s brand new SCQ (Superpole specific) tyre.

Update: Michael Van Der Mark looks set to return for his home round at Assen on April 22-24.