• Alvaro Bautista and Ducati maintained their 100% win record by destroying the field in Race 1 at Aragon.

• Bautista finished the race 15 seconds ahead of Jonathan Rea on the Kawasaki.

• His teammate Chaz Davies finished in 3^rd.

Alvaro Bautista and Ducati maintained their 100% win record by destroying the field in Race 1 at Aragon. The Aragon track in Spain hosts Round 3 of the WorldSBK 2019 championship.

Not wanting to be bogged down in a bruising battle like in Race 1 at Buriram, Thailand, Bautista blasted into the lead as soon as the lights went out. He never looked back and was almost a second faster per lap. He would eventually cross the line 15 seconds clear of the second-placed man.

As with the previous MotoGP race in Argentina, Bautista left the rest to battle for second and third places in his wake.

Reigning WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea on the Kawasaki fought his way up from 10^thon the grid, only to find himself fighting hard against another two Ducatis for the runner-up position.

Bautista’s teammate Chaz Davies appeared to have finally come to grips with the new Panigale V4 R. He had been battling with Eugene Laverty on the satellite Team Go Eleven Ducati Panigale V4 R during the earlier part of the race, when Rea joined the party.

The trio swapped positions on and on until the final lap, when Laverty ran into the back of Davies. The come-together sent Laverty off the track and caused Davies to lose touch to Rea. Rea escaped to take 2^ndplace while Davies brought his bike home in 3^rd.

Behind them, Alex Lowes took his Pata Yamaha to 4^thwhile Tom Sykes took the new BMW S 1000 RR to 5^th.

ANALYSIS

It’s understandable that some are charging that Ducati brought a MotoGP bike to WorldSBK and voiced concerns over Bautista’s domination. But look at where the other Ducatis are. Bautista’s teammate Davies was in 3^rdand Laverty almost took 4^th. It’s more of how Bautista is able to interpret and unlock the bike’s full potential compared to everyone else. Plus, he’s probably so used to riding those beasts in MotoGP, so the Panigale V4 R is comparatively easy. We’re not saying that the Panigale V4 R isn’t fast, but every bike needs the rider to unlock its capabilities.

There’s talk of Dorna looking at curtailing the Panigale V4 R’s maximum revs in order to lower its maximum power. The WorldSBK rules provide for this, in order to keep the field close and exciting for fans. However, doing so would handicap not Bautista but the other Ducatis, too.

Tom Sykes did very well on the BMW S 1000 RR. The bike has a stock engine compared to the rest of the field’s. The exhaust, cams, ECU and suspension are standard like a SuperStock bike’s. It ought to go much faster with the race kit.

Race 2 for WorldSBK starts at 8.00pm tonight.