2022 Assen World Superbike Race Two Result: Incidents And Penalties Akimbo

The final race of the weekend, World Superbike race two, remained windy, with the wind battering the cameras and brollies. Alvaro Bautista starts the race a place behind his Superpole race finishing position on track due to a decision by race direction; a track limit infringement. The temperature rose to 15ºC, a not great improvement on this morning's cold conditions.

Toprak Razgatlioglu and Andrea Locatelli locked out the top two spots into the first turn. Alvaro Bautista and Iker Lecuona push Jonathan Rea back to fifth place where he was clipped by Garrett Gerloff who ran off the track after breaking his fairing on Rea's Kawasaki. Rea tried to pass Lecuona into the Geert Timmer chicane but had to hold back to avoid collision.

After lap two, Axel Bassani set the fastest lap of 1'34.788 in eighth place. Toprak Razgatlioglu led Alvaro Bautista, Andrea Locatelli, Jonathan Rea and Iker Lecuola. Rea took third from Locatelli into turn seven and then set a fastest lap, a 1'34.093, passing Bautista briefly after Bautista took the lead into the Geert Timmer chicane and messed up the exit to lose the lead back to Razgatlioglu.

Jonathan Rea took second from Alvaro Bautista into the chicane at the end of the lap, with three tenths of a second covering Razgatlioglu, Rea and Bautista. Andrea Locatelli and Iker Lecuona were within striking distance of the leading trio, and everything changed at the start of lap six.

Into turn one of lap six, Toprak Razgatlioglu went wide and Jonathan Rea snuck under him only for the pair to make contact on the exit of the turn and both riders crashed out. Iker Lecuona led the race as Alvaro Bautista avoided the crash at the front, picking up some rubber from Locatelli's front tyre. Bautista took the lead back at the end of the lap. 

At the start of lap eight, Bautista led Lecuona and Locatelli with Alex Lassani, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Alex Lowes and Scott Redding close behind. Loris Baz out of the race after an early crash put Redding into top BMW spot. A lap later, Bautista led Lecuona by over a second and started his undisturbed hot lapping as the crash between his two rivals was put under investigation. 

Lap ten, Alvaro Bautista had a two second lead over Iker Lecuona with Andrea Locatelli and Axel Bassani under a second behind in third and fourth place. A lap later, Bautista was the only rider doing 1'34 laps, leading the race by three and a half seconds. Andrea Locatelli and Axel Bassani closed the gap to Lecuona in second place, but a mistake by Bassani dropped him a second back into the clutches of Alex Lowes and Scott Redding. Lowes passed Bassani and he was followed by Scott Redding, pushing Bassani to sixth place. Scott Redding then blasted through the Geert Timmer chicane to lead Alex Lowes onto the finish straight. Axel Bassani followed Redding to take fifth off Lowes. Scott Redding started lap sixteen two seconds behind Andrea Locatelli's third place. Axel Bassani received a track limits warning.

Michael van der Mark led a three-way fight for eighth place, over twenty seconds off the lead, with Xavi Vierge and Lucas Mahias vying for the same position, eight seconds behind a lonely seventh-placed Michael Ruben Rinaldi. Andrea Locatelli took second place as Iker Lecuona went wide round turn six and Scott Redding got a track limits warning three seconds further behind. 

Two laps to go, Alvaro Bautista led Andrea Locatelli and Iker Lecuona by over nine seconds. Locatelli led Lecuona by only half a second with Scott Redding almost four seconds further back with Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani on his tail. Michael Ruben Rinaldi was in a safe seventh place, eight seconds ahead of Michael van der Mark's eighth place battle. 

The last lap looked like everything was settled, with Lecuona over a second off Locatelli and Bautista ten seconds in the distance. Fourth place was not decide between Lowes, Redding and Bassani, however.

Alvaro Bautista won the race decisively, ahed of Andrea Locatelli. A jubilant Iker Lecuona took his first World Superbike podium on the Honda, ahead of Alex Lowes, Axel Bassani and Scott Redding, whose sixth place is his best finish of the year, but he had a few track limits warnings, as did Axel Bassani, promoting Redding to fifth place. No penalties were handed out to Rea and Razgatlioglu after their incident. 

Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu's crash handed Alvaro Bautista a championship lead of eighteen points. Andrea Locatelli and Iker Lecuona consolidate their fourth and fifth places.

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