MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

World Superbike's 900th race was Alvaro Bautista's first chance to take the title.

Toprak Razgatlioglu led Andrea Locatelli into turn one as Alvaro Bautista passed Jonathan Rea into the first turns to take third place. Rea pushed past Bautista and held third place for the remainder of the lap and started lap two in third place. Rea grabbed second place from Locatelli as Razgatlioglu started to stretch out his lead but Rea set the fastest lap, a 1'33.057 as he kept on the leader's tail.

Bautista started lap four ahead of Locatelli but he was lapping a quarter of a second slower than the leaders. Razgatlioglu set a 1'32.886 stretching his lead over Rea by another two tenths of a second, adding another tenth a lap later, the leading pair over a second clear of Bautista. 

Six laps down, Razgatlioglu led Rea by over a second with Bautista under a second behind Rea. Locatelli was two seconds off the podium with Axel Bassani over two seconds behind him. Michael van der Mark, Alex Lowes and Xavi Vierge were in touch with Bassani in the first for fifth place, and Lowes took fifth off Bassani as van der Mark dropped to tenth place. 

At the start of lap nine, Razgatlioglu had increased his lead to over two seconds as Bautista was glued to the back of Rea. Bautista looked for a way past, taking second place in to turn fifteen, starting lap ten three seconds behind Razgatlioglu.

At half race distance, Toprak Razgatlioglu led Alvaro Bautista by over three secondhand had dropped Jonathan Rea to a second behind him. Andrea Locatelli was alone in fourth place, five seconds behind the leading trio. Axel Bassani led the fight for fifth over a second behind Locatelli.

With clear track ahead and Rea not nipping at his heels, Bautista matched Razgatlioglu's pace and after a mistake from Razgatlioglu into turn seven, the same mistake Can Oncu made in the World Supersport race earlier, Bautista was able to close to a second behind the lead. By the end of lap fourteen, Razgatlioglu recovered half a second to force Bautista outside the one second bubble, stretching the gap to almost two seconds by the start of lap sixteen of twenty one. Jonathan Rea was over four seconds further back. 

Seven seconds behind Rea, Michael Ruben Rinaldi had woken up and charged from ninth through to fourth place over a few laps, making a clean overtake past Andrea Locatelli into turn ten. 

Back in eighth place, Garrett Gerloff had found some pace and was lapping at the same pace as the leaders, but Rinaldi lost fourth place to Locatelli after missing a turn and losing a couple of seconds to recover.

Michael van der Mark tried to pass Gerloff, but Gerloff closed the gap pushing van der Mark into the inside of the turn where he started a wobble that made him crash out of eighth place. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu started the last lap with a three second lead over Alvaro Bautista and over ten seconds over Jonathan Rea. Andrea Locatelli was over seven seconds further back, settling the podium.

Toprak Razgatlioglu followed the thin black line round the track without incident to take the win ahead of Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea. Andrea Locatelli was the first of the non-podium finishers in fourth place, four seconds clear of Michael Ruben Rinaldi with Xavi Vierge holding off an attack from Garrett Gerloff three seconds behind Rinaldi. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu's twenty eighth victory on a Yamaha passes Noriyuki Haga's record of twenty seven, the most of any Yamaha World Superbike rider.

The title fight carries on for another day, but Bautista's second place only allowed Razgatlioglu to gain five points on the leader. Bautista leads Razgatlioglu by seventy seven points with ninety nine remaining in the year. Bautista needs to lead by eighty seven points after the Superpole race tomorrow to claim the title before race two, but he only needs to leave Indonesia with a lead of sixty two points to be taking the championship trophy with him. Jonathan Rea is now out of mathematical contention for the championship. 

Results: