The World Super Bike Championship 2022 results from Spain

Results from Race One at the Aragon World Superbike, round 1 of the 2022 world championship. 

Jonathan Rea claims a sensational first World Superbike win of 2022 after getting the better of Alvaro Bautista in the final corner.

Fastest over the weekend with regards to race pace, Rea quickly turned second into first after getting past Razgatlioglu at turn seven.

Lap two and Razgatlioglu responded by regaining the lead at turn two, but unwilling to give his big rival any advantage, Rea produced a late-braking move heading into turn 12 to lead once more.

Seventh to begin race one, Iker Lecuona got a great start as he led the next group in fifth. But as the Honda rider struggled to keep pace with the leading quartet, Alex Lowes instead came through on the rookie.

 

Lap five, and yes you guessed it, the lead changed again as Razgatlioglu muscled his way through on Rea at turn one. Bautista was keeping a close eye on the top two as team-mate Michael Rinaldi began to drop back.

Three abreast anyone… Bautista and Rea got a lovely run out of the final corner as the leading trio all attempted to lead into turn one.

After initially getting the lead, Rea was demoted to second by Bautista at turn seven. All this resulted in Rinaldi closing back in.

As Rea nearly ran off-track, team-mate Lowes was down in the gravel following a first crash of the season for the Brit.

Keeping the same plan as the beginning of the race, Rea attempted to snap back at Bautista at every possible opportunity, however, the Ducati rider continued to hold strong out front.

As he looked to clear off, Bautista had a big moment on the exit of turn 16 after nearly suffering a highside.

The mistake allowed Rea to close up before getting through at turn one. Bautista then lost further time after running wide in sector two, but after composing himself, the former MotoGP rider closed back in on Rea.

Rea and Bautista exchanged the lead once again at turn 16, while Razgatlioglu was unable to get involved.

The top two began to break clear of the world champion with five laps to go as Razgatlioglu was seemingly struggling for front-end grip.

Redding, who started 16th, was dropped to P19 following a poor start, and although he eventually made his way into the points (15th), that’s as far as his progress went.

The former Ducati rider and series runner-up was last of the four BMW riders, which includes playing second best to stand-in rider Ilya Mychalchyk, who was eighth.

It looks like the road to achieving success with BMW is going to be a long and hard one for Redding, who has lacked pace all weekend, not to mention all pre-season.

Back at the front, Bautista regained the lead along the back straight before Rea produced a favourite move of his at turn seven.

The final position change looked to have come with three laps to go as Rea pushed on during the final two laps.

However, Bautista responded on the final lap as he closed a six tenth lead down to four heading onto the back-straight.

On said straight, and Bautista used his incredible top speed to get alongside the six-time world champion heading into turn 16. But not ofr the first time, Rea delivered a lovely switchback to come across the line first.