Jonathan Rea⛦ domina💯tes the first wet-weather session of the 2022 World Superbike campaign in Estoril. 

The overnight rain did little to dampen track action however, as Rea and 💝Toprak Raz♛gatlioglu were two of the first riders to head out of pit lane. 

Alvaro Bautista initially set the pace before a brilliant opening effort from Rea saw him move two seconds clear of anyone. Razgat𝓀lioglu slotted😼 into second with Rea directly behind him on track. 

ꦕBautista’s next lap around was a very good one as he gained time in sectors one, three and four in order to go quickest by +0.258s. 

In typical Rea style, the six-time World Superbike champion regained top spot by over five tenths, show✅ing he’s just as comfortable in the wet as he is in the dry.   ൲;

Iker Lecuona con⭕tinued his impressive rookie campaign after spending most of the warm-up session inside the top five. 

As the two leaders continued to exchange fastest times, Rea set a time of 1:49.277s which was three tentꦜhs clear of Bautista - 1.4 second quicker than Razgatlioglu who was down in P6. 

Rea then br🔥oke the 1m 49s ba🦹rrier in what was quickly becoming a dominant performance from the Kawasaki rider. 

Loris Baz went third fastest after a so💞lid final lap, although no rider was able to ༒displace Rea and Bautista in first and second.

Estoril WorldSBK Records

Fastest Lap - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team 1:35.346s (2022)

Race Lap Record - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki 1:36.206s (2022) 

2021 Winners 

Race One - Scott Redding GBR Aruba.it Ducati 

Superpole Race - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team 

Race Two - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team 

Bautista takes fourth World Superbike win of 2022 after epic duel with Razgatlioglu

Starting from pole position for the first time in 2022, Rea made a poor start as Razgatliog𝔉lu took🌠 the lead.

Rea was then relegated to fourth by both Aruba.it Ducati’s, however, 🌼Bautista ran slightly wide at turn one which 𒈔meant Michael Rinaldi had to run off-track. 

Prior to the race getting underway, Rea made a bold mo🦹ve as he elected to run a development front tyre, while also using the hard rear tyre which was different to main rivals Razgatlioglu and Bautista🀅 who were running the SCX option. 

Leandro Mercado had an early crash as he went down at💯 turn seven𓆉 on lap one. The MIE Honda rider was unable to continue. 

There was💦 an early attempt from Re🦹a to regain the lead, but in typical Razgatlioglu style, the Yamaha rider stayed in front after braking later than Rea.

Five corners later and contact was made once again by the two leaders. Rea attempted to cut underneath Razgatlioglu at turn six, but after misjudging the Turkish rider’s speed, Rea ran into the rear of Razgatlioglu - both riders remained aboard their machines without any apparent damage.🃏 

Looking toꦆ bounce back from his mistake and claw back Razgatlioglu, Rea set a new fastest lap on lap four, while Bautista claimed third off Andrea Locatelli. 

With a 𒊎comfortable lead, Razgatli✤oglu then made a mistake of his own as he ran wide at turn three, an error that allowed Rea to take the lead. 

Now his turn to stal🌊k Rea, Razgatlioglu was in no mood to wait as he delivered a brilliant late-braking move at turn one to take the lead𒀰. 

As the lead changed again between Rea and Razgatlioglu at turn one, thღe battle was helping Bautista slowly gain 🎐time. 

Becoming a firm favour𝓀ite for both riders, turn one was the scene of yet another stunning move as Razgatlioglu came from miles back to overtake Rea, in t🐠he meantime, Bautista was half a second faster on lap 10. 

Lap 11 and Bautista gained another half second to bring 🔥the gap down to 1♏.5 seconds. 

After another three laps of overtaking between Razgatlioglu and Rea [turn one], Bautista wa♏s now 🔯within a second of the two leaders. 

With Rea now fully under pressure from Bautista, the Kawasaki rider fluffed his lines at turn one and ran wide which allowed the Spaniard into secon♏d place. 

Once into second place, Bautista managed to drop Rea 🍃as he slowly closed in on Razgatlioglu. 

But with four laps to go, Razgatlioglu responded in brilliant fashion to extend 🔯his lead back to seven tenths. 

A very strong 18th𒅌 lap saw Bautista gain four tenths along the start-finish straight, however, the Pata Yamaha rider held strong into turn one. 

In what was looking like an inevitable change for the lead, Bautista used his incredible straight-line speed to g𝓀et ahead before turn one, but the 🤪reigning world champion came right back at the Spanaird on the brakes to somehow keep the lead.

Just as it appeared as though Razgatlioglu put together a perfect last lap, the Turkish star was slow of🎀f the final corner as Bautista got the drive in order to pip Razgatlioglu across the line.  

There were earl🏅y🐈 problems for Pedercini Kawasaki rider Isaac Vinales as his ZX10-RR was being worked on moments before the start.

Estoril WorldSBK Remaining Schedule

Sunday 

11:00 WorldSBK Superpole Race 

14:00 WorldSBK Race 2