What a weekend at the opening of the Superbike World Championship, with Alex Lowes ending the victory drought by winning race 2 in Phillip Island on Sunday, in a race that was marked by a red flag – after Jonathan Rea crashed – and an overtaking maneuver that secured first place… and the lead in the championship.
The race started with Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) immediately standing out and taking the holeshot, with Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) as his main opponent, along with Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
However, Razgatlioglu had to end his race due to a technical problem with his BMW M 1000 RR and was forced to retire, while Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) appeared in fourth place, but bad luck struck as he crashed at the end of the third lap, just as Bautista would take the lead in lap four, before the red flag was raised.
The grid for the restarted race was based on the classification before the red flag, with Bautista lining up on the front row alongside Locatelli and Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven), who had a great start and moved up the rankings in the first three laps, including a double overtake on Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team Motocorsa Racing) and Rea. Bautista maintained the lead, but the highlight was Rinaldi, who climbed from sixth place to second, challenging Bautista for the lead.
Rinaldi remained less than half a second behind his former teammate, although he was attempting a final attack for first place, which he never managed to achieve. Further back, Alex Lowes was closing in on Rinaldi. The #22 ultimately not only got close but actually overtook him on the eighth lap, at a time when Locatelli was slowing down and not being as competitive.
The front trio started to pull away, with Iannone falling behind due to a mechanical issue on his bike that had been affecting him since the sixth lap.
Shortly after, Locatelli, who had already overtaken Rinaldi, crashed while trying to pass Alex Lowes – which put Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) in third place – and “released” Bautista to fight more independently with the Kawasaki rider.
The British rider eventually prevailed over the world champion and won the race, with the winning overtake coming on the final lap. Bautista tried to respond and reclaim the position but without success.
This was Lowes’ fourth victory in WSBK, with three of them happening at the legendary Australian circuit. It was also the British rider’s 36th podium, while Kawasaki secured their 180th victory.
