WorldSBK: Bautista and van der Mark benefit

Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista and Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark did all the winning at round five of the 2019 Superbike World Championship at Jerez in Spain on June 8-9, in what was an eventful weekend for reigning champion Jonathan Rea.

Bautista won the first two races on his factory Ducati before crashing out in the third – his lead in the series still a healthy 41pts – while it was a 2-2-1 scorecard for van der Mark (Yamaha).

Rea (Kawasaki) went 4-4-2 over the two days, but the troubles for the polesitter began in race one when he attempted an ambitious passing maneuver on Alex Lowes (Yamaha) on the last lap, which saw his adversary go down.

Rea crossed the finish line in third, but was relegated to fourth by officials – Marco Melandri (Yamaha) the beneficiary to score the final podium positon.

Other strong results at Jerez also came from Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki, 5-7-3), Tom Sykes (6-5-7), Leon Haslam (Kawasaki, 9-6-5) and Sandro Cortese (Yamaha, 8-9-6). Melandri was also third in race two before he collided with Chaz Davies (Ducati) in the finale, with both of them failing to finish.

FULL RESULTS AND STANDINGS

Meanwhile, it was left for van der Mark to celebrate his first win of the season in race three.

"My plan today was to fight with Alvaro Bautista, but unfortunately he crashed, and I hope he is okay,” said van der Mark.

“After that, it was Johnny (Rea) and me, and I was following him trying to pull away from Toprak (Razgatlioglu) but his pace wasn't as fast as I expected, so I passed him and just tried to do my rhythm.

"The bike felt so much better today compared to yesterday. Big thanks to the team because this weekend they did an incredible job and from Friday morning I was feeling comfortable on the bike. I am proud of my first win of the season.”

After five of 12 rounds, Bautista leads on 300pts from Rea (259), van der Mark (188), Lowes (142) and Haslam (130).

Round six is in Misano, Italy from June 21-23.