Álvaro Bautista wins race 1 of the Superbike World Championship in Argentina

The Superbike World Championship held race 1 at the San Juan Villicum Circuit in Argentina, where we saw Álvaro Bautista claim the championship’s pole position, so expectation was at its peak to see the riders in action on the Argentine track.

The event was extremely exciting; we witnessed a fierce battle at the front, but in the end it was Álvaro Bautista, the poleman, who secured victory in this race aboard his Ducati. It was far from easy, as Jonathan Rea and Michael van der Mark gave him plenty of trouble from the start of the race.

A group of four riders formed at the front, with Bautista, Rea, van der Mark and Razgatlıoğlu; above all, the Ducati rider and the Kawasaki rider engaged in a very tense battle, with overtakes and re-overtakes, while van der Mark and Razgatlıoğlu waited for the key moment to attack the front.

Bautista set a blistering pace, which the rest of the riders could follow at first, but little by little he left them behind and none of them could keep up with the Ducati rider. So with Bautista pulling away at the front, the battle focused on the fight for second place, as Razgatlıoğlu had got very close to Jonathan Rea, but in the end the Kawasaki rider managed to hold on to the position at the finish.

So it was a victory for Bautista, followed by Rea and Razgatlıoğlu, while the top 10 was completed by van der Mark in 4th, Lowes 5th, Haslam 6th, Sykes 7th, Torres 8th, Mercado 9th and Del Bianco 10th.

On to Sunday’s races.