San Juan WorldSBK Race (1) Results: Bautista wins as Razgatlioglu crashes

Alvaro Bautista wins race one after Toprak Razgatlioglu suffered a massive dent to his 2022 WorldSBK title defence.

After retaining the lead into turn one Razgatlioglu led heading onto the back-straight ahead of Jonathan Rea.

But as has proven to be the case all weekend, Bautista’s top speed advantage brought him into contention on the back-straight before overtaking both Razgatlioglu and Rea on the approach to turn six. 

Too eager to get straight back through, Razgatlioglu made an uncharacteristic mistake as he dove to the inside of Bautista while carrying way too much speed. 

The Yamaha rider crashed in spectacular fashion as Rea came back through to lead due to Bautista having to momentarily take avoiding action. 

Now in the lead, Rea had a great opportunity to try and break clear, however, Axel Bassani had different ideas as he took the lead on lap two. 

Bautista, who was now fourth on the road, made light work of Iker Lecuona on lap four before closing in on Rea for second. 

Shaping up for a move on Bassani, Rea was instead moved down to third as Bautista got great drive coming off turn seven. 

With the chance to take another big step towards his first WorldSBK title in front of him, Bautista wasted no more time in going for the lead as he overtook Bassani along the back-straight with 14 laps remaining.

Rea followed Bautista through a few corners later with a very aggressive move on the young Italian, but after running wide a turn five on the ensuing lap, Bassani swiftly fought back and claimed P2.  

As Bassani and Rea continued to battle hard and exchange positions, Bautista gradually opened up his advantage to the tune of three seconds. 

Despite appearing to be slower than Rea for several laps, Bassani then steadied the ship and started lapping quicker than the six-time champion with ten laps to go. 

Rea was not out of contention though, as the Kawasaki rider again found more pace during the final five laps before a move took place at turn one with three laps remaining. 

With tyre degradation proving to be an issue for Bassani, the Motocorsa Ducati rider had no answer for Rea. 

Out front, Bautista continued setting fastest lap after fastest lap en route to a comfortable race one victory.

San Juan WorldSBK Records:

Lap record: Scott Redding GBR Aruba.it Ducati 1:37.345s

2021 San Juan Winners

Race 1: Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha

Superpole Race: Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha 

Race 2: Scott Redding GBR Aruba.it Ducati

Marco Solorza is replacing Leon Haslam at Pedercini Kawasaki this weekend, while Maximilian Scheib is stepping in for Hafizh Syahrin who was ruled out due to injury and illness. 

Xavi Fores is also returning to WorldSBK as he replaces Luca Bernardi at Barni Spark Racing Ducati, after the Italian was demoted to WorldSSP with CM Ducati.

Prior to FP1 getting underway it was confirmed that Leandro Mercado won’t be continuing with MIE Honda in 2023. 

San Juan Weekend schedule (UK time) 

Friday 

Free Practice 1: 14:30-15:15

Free Practice 2: 19:00-19:45

Saturday

Free Practice 3: 14:00-14:30

Superpole: 16:10-16:25

Race 1: 19:00

Sunday 

Warm-up: 14:00-14:10

Superpole Race: 16:00

Race 2: 19:00