2022 Mandalika World Superbike Superpole Race Result: Hot Weather, Hard Work

The World Supersport race was ten gruelling laps at 34ºC and a 52ºC track that would determine the grid for race two later today. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu led Andrea Locatelli and Jonathan Rea into turn one as Alvaro Bautista was pushed back to sixth place. Rea worked his way past Locatelli into turn ten and started lap two behind Razgatlioglu and looked for a way past into the first few turns. 

Bautista snuck past Axel Bassani at the end of the lap and started lap three behind the fastest man on track, Alex Lowes setting a 1'32.687 in fourth place. Rea took the lead after Razgatlioglu missed his exit on turn eleven. Bautista set the fastest lap on lap three, a 1'32.525.

Rea led Razgatlioglu with everyone in the top nine places in touch with everyone around them. Starting lap 5, Jonathan Rea led and set the fastest lap, a 1'32.480 on lap four. The leading six became a group as Scott Redding sat over a second off sixth placed Axel Bassani after Xavi Vierge lost three places after an error. Rea and Razgatlioglu swapped placed back and forth.

At half race distance, Alvaro Bautista had the fastest lap, a 1'32.213, in fourth place as Jonathan Rea led Toprak Razgatlioglu and Andrea Locatelli. Razgatlioglu took the lead on the brakes into turn ten, a popular passing place. 

Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes dropped off the fight at the front, contesting fourth and fifth places between themselves a second behind Bautista in fourth. Razgatlioglu set a fastest lap, a 1'32.163, on lap seven. Scott Redding caught up with Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes and made the fight for fifth an three-way affair, passing Lowes at the end of lap nine. 

The last lap, Razgatliloglu led Rea with Locatelli and Bautista a second off the leaders. Bassani, Redding and Lowes were almost two seconds further back. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu held off Jonathan Rea to win the Superpole race and his teammate Andrea Locatelli helped out by taking third place by under a tenth ahead of Alvaro Bautista. Axel Bassani's fifth place netted him the best independent rider award and he stopped on the cool down lap to get a new shirt from his team to make it official. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu held off Bautista's charge for the title for another race, but Bautista, with a lead of seventy one points, only needs to finish on the podium in this afternoon's race to claim the title today. Andrea Locatelli's podium put him forty one points off Michael Ruben Rinaldi's fourth place in the championship with not enough races left for him to realistically catch him, but Alex Lowes is now five points behind him, with Axel Bassani a further eight points back.

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