MotoGP Race And Practice Results

The last World Supersport race of the year was eighteen laps off Phillip Island and the grid lined up for a dry race. Niki Tuuli was ruled unfit after stomach pains. Leonardo Taccini would start from the back of the grid due to a tyre pressure infringement. 

Nicolo Bulega led Yari Montella and Federico Caricasulo in to turn one but Montella took to the outside to take second place only to be pushed wide by the field. Montella crashed with Can Oncu, ending his race and swerved through the pack making a few riders nervous as he climbed to fifth place. Dominique Aegerter led Lorenzo Baldassarri at the start of lap two but Baldassarri took the lead as the pair swapped back and forth throughout the lap. 

On the second lap, behind Baldassarri, Aegerter, Caricasulo and Bulega, Yari Montella set the fastest lap, a 1'34.875. Stefano Manzi followed him through to take sixth place ahead of Marcel Schroetter. 

On lap three, Schroetter set the fastest lap, a 1'34.659, just over two seconds off the leader. Aegerter took over at the lead as Baldassarri went wide into turn four. Montella clawed his way up to third place to duel with Caricasulo as the leading four were caught by Manzi, Bulega and Schroetter. Carucasulo passed Montella and Aegerter but as Aegerter took second place back, Montella was handed a long lap penalty for his incident with Oncu, declared irresponsible riding.

On lap six, Montella took his penalty around the loop outside turn four and returned to the race in seventh place ahead of Raffaele De Rosa. Lap seven, Aegerter took the lead back from Baldassarri into turn one ahead of Federico Caricasulo and Stefano Manzi who set the fastest lap, a 1'34.008, and then crashed, pushed off the track by Caricasulo underneath him. Manzi recovered in twentieth place. Caricasulo took the lead, charging from third place to first into turn one, but Aegerter took the lead back from him out of the turn and into turn two.

As Baldassarri fought with Caricasulo, Aegerter did his rabbit impression early, teasing out a second in a lap to lead by over a second at half race distance. Caricasulo led Baldassarri by two hundredths of a second as Schroetter defended against Montella over a second behind the podium fight. 

A second behind Aegerter, Caricasulo set a 1'34.008 fastest lap as Montella took fourth from Schroetter and stared at a gap of under a second and a half to the podium places. Bulega followed Schroetter through to take fifth from the German. 

At two thirds race distance, the weather looked like it wasn't going to interrupt the action as Aegerter led Caricasulo by a second and a half with Baldassarri a further second behind. Three and a half seconds further back, Bulega led Montella, Schroetter and De Rosa. Oli Bayliss held eighth place six and a half seconds further back. 

Lap seventeen of eighteen, Dominique Aegerter led Federico Caricasulo by two seconds with Lorenzo Baldassarri a second further back. Nicolo Bulega, six seconds off the podium, fended off Yari Montella with Raffaele De Rosa, fighting with his transponder, two seconds further back but a second clear of Marcel Schroetter. 

At the flag, Dominique Aegerter took the win, celebrating just under two seconds ahead of Federico Caricasulo and Lorenzo Baldassarri. Oli Bayliss celebrated his eighth place in front of his home crowd, nine seconds behind Marcel Schroetter on his debut Supersport weekend. Jules Cluzel finished in eleventh place on his final career race before he sat on the track with compatriots Loris Baz and Andy Verdoia to play a quick game of Uno. Dominique Aegerter showboated around the victory lap as Cluzel tried to destroy his last tyre. Aegerter squared off his rear tyre before twatting the rev limiter in Parc Fermé. Can Oncu retained third place in the championship in spite of his crash, but will likely not put Yari Montella on his Christmas card list. 

Dominique Aegerter took seventeen wins from twenty four races along with winning the MotoE title and heads off to World Superbike for 2023. 

Results:

Rain stopped but everyone bar one was on wet tyres. Philipp Oettl was the lone rider on an intermediate rear. Ducati needs 14 points to claim the manufacturer title.

Alvaro Bautista led Toprak Razgatlioglu into turn on e with Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes behind them. Axel Bassani passed Garrett Gerloff for sixth place behind Andrea Locatelli. Philipp Oettl pitted in after running on after the first lap.

Lap two, Alex Lowes set the fastest lap in fourth place, a 1'44.169, as Jonathan Rea took second place into turn one to start lap three. Rea took the lead into turn four and set the fastest lap of 1'43.070 on lap three. A lap later, Razgatlioglu took second place into turn four. Lowes charged past Bautista a couple of turns later, carrying much more speed into the corner.

At the start of lap five, Bautista took third placer from Lowes at the start of the lap, but Lowes took it back into turn four. At the front, a second clear of the fight for third, Razgatlioglu set a 1'43.014 and took the lead on the brakes into turn one.

Alex Lowes closed to the leaders, bringing Bautista with him as Bautista set a 1'43.014 fastest lap. Rea took a sweeping line out of turn two that gave him a tighter line into turn three, sticking his Kawasaki under Razgatlioglu. A turn later, Lowes took second place from Razgatlioglu and at the start of lap eight, after setting a fastest lap of 1'42.722, Alex Lowes took the lead, passing his teammate down the straight and sitting on the inside line into turn one, starting lap eight in the lead and finishing it with another fastest lap, a 1'41.728. 

The leading four riders were covered by under a second as the track dried out. Lap nine, Razgatlioglu went wide and let Bautista snatch third place from him before Lowes and Rea set fastest laps, with Rea's 1'41.052 coming out on top. Riders started pitting in for slick tyres, with Tati Mercado following Hafizh Syahrin in tyre changes.

Jonathan Rea pits in after Syahrin's decision to switch gave him the fastest lap, a 1'39.629. Razgatlioglu also pitted in. After Rea. Lowes led Bautista and Gerloff but Bautista and Gerloff then pitted in. Lowes stayed in under 1'40 as Syahrin set a 1'37.855 in eighteenth place. Scott Redding inherited second place, twenty eight seconds off Lowes. Rea and Razgatlioglu returned in fifth and sixth, was Lowes pitted in. Rea set a 1'33.311 on the better tyre with three riders ahead of him, with Redding in the lead twenty seconds ahead of Rea. Lowes returned behind Rea, Razgatlioglu and Bautista. At the start of lap fourteen, Rea set a 1'32.735 in third place as Oliver Konig pitted in. Scott Redding and Kyle Smith led Rea by over ten seconds who had six seconds over Toprak Razgatlioglu until Razgatlioglu set the fastest lap on lap fourteen, a 1'32.735. Kyle Smith was passed by Jonathan Rea round the outside and Rea reclaimed the lead. Razgatlioglu powered into turn one after setting a 1'32.304, blasting past Smith for second place, under six seconds from Rea in the lead. 

Xavi Vierge got a pit intervention time penalty, but it was rescinded a couple of laps later. Jonathan Rea posted a 1'32.203 on lap sixteen of twenty two, almost six seconds clear of Toprak Razgatlioglu with Alvaro Bautista nine seconds further back. Alex Lowes caught and passed Bautista into Lukey Heights. Razgatlioglu set a 1'32.005 under five and a half seconds off Rea in the lead. Andrea Locatelli also passed Bautista, passing him into turn four.

Jonathan Rea briefly held a new fastest lap only for Razgatlioglu to post a 1'31.884 five seconds behind him. Lowes led Locatelli and Bautista ten seconds off the leading pair with Axel Bassani and Garrett Gerloff twelve seconds behind them. 

Lap twenty was another fastest lap, for Razgatlioglu, a 1'31.868, but ten seconds later, Lowes posted a 1'31.847 for the fastest lap. 

Kyle Smith stayed out on his wet tyre, lapping six seconds slower than everyone else, started the last lap in tenth place, under two seconds clear of eleventh placed Tetsuta Nagashima, it didn't take long for Nagashima to catch and pass him.

With the leading riders spread out a bit, the last lap didn't have any fights near the front and Jonathan Rea won by six seconds over Toprak Razgatlioglu. Nine seconds further back, Alex Lowes took third place three seconds ahead of Andrea Locatelli with Alvaro Bautista a further second behind. 

With a well-timed pit stop, Jonathan Rea took the tactical advantage to win the race. Toprak Razgatlioglu lost too much time in his tyre change to challenge Rea and Alex Lowes lost four or five seconds every lap he didn't pit in but still finished on the podium. Garrett Gerloff was top independent rider in sixth place, behind Andrea Locatelli and Alvaro Bautista. 

Jonathan Rea heads to the last day in third place in the championship thirty two points behind Toprak Razgatlioglu. Ducati claimed the manufacturer's title with a day to go. 

Results:

Fifteen minutes of World Superbike Superpole qualifying benefitted from World Supersport trying the track out enough for slick tyres. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu held the top spot until Alex Lowes set a 1'30.609 on his first lap, ahead of Jonathan Rea and Alvaro Bautista. Bautista set a 1'30.304 a lap later and riders started pitting in for the last customary mid-session break of the year.

Jonathan Rea didn't pit in at the same time as the rest of the field, sneaking into second place before he headed back for new tyres. Halfway through the session, Kyle Smith finally got to get on track.

Six minutes left and riders started to head back out, but most of them waited for another minute or so before getting their last laps in. Jonathan Rea set a 1'30.026 before Alvaro Bautista posted a 1'29.815 to get the top spot with over two minutes left. Alex Lowes and Toprak Razgatlioglu set quicker laps to get into third and fourth quickest.

Tetsuta Nagashima crashed out at turn four, but the Marshalls were quick to clear the yellow flags. The chequered flag came out and the rain hinted at a return and the fast laps disappeared. 

Alvaro Bautista took pole position ahead of the Kawasaki pair of Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes. Toprak Razgatlioglu was joined with his teammate Andrea Locatelli and Garrett Gerloff to make it an all-Yamaha second row. 

Results:

Rain hampered Free Practice 3 giving riders opportunities to test wet and intermediate tyres. Jonathan Rea came out on top with second and third quickest Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alex Lowes holding the top spot at various points throughout the session. Alvaro Bautista was fourth quickest ahead of Axel Bassani and Honda stand-in Tetsuta Nagashima. 

Full results to follow:

1. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1’41.353s
2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +0.377s
3. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.523s
4. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.556s
5. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +1.016s
6. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) +1.294s