MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

In the final race of the weekend, after investigation of his crash with Dominique Aegerter in the morning's sprint race, Remy Gardner would earn himself a long lap penalty for irresponsible riding. The long lap loop is at Miller Corner. The temperature was up on this morning and a warm and dry twenty two laps would determine the results. Everyone had the same tyres.

Alvaro Bautista led his teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi in to turn one with Andrea Locatelli, Toprak Razgatlioglu and, getting a great start from the third row, Jonathan Rea behind. A lap later, Axel Bassani sat in fourth place having carved past Rea and Razgatlioglu. 

After lap two, Bautista set the fastest lap, a 1'30.766, ahead of Rinaldi and Locatelli. Behind third-placed Bassani, Rea, Razgatlioglu, Alex owes and Iker Lecuona were all within striking distance. Remy Gardner took his long lap penalty on lap four. Tom Sykes pulled into the pits for the third time this weekend as Rea passed Bassani into the southern loop, turn two. Razgatlioglu followed Rea pushing Bassani back to sixth place. Rea had over a second to Locatelli's third place and two and a half seconds from Bautista. Lowes passed Bassani into Miller Corner pushing Bassani down to seventh place. 

Aegerter tried to pass Philipp Oettl for ninth place but he had to adjust his corner exit to avoid Oettl and he let Danielle Petrucci and Michael van Der Mark past him. Alex Lowes pushed Razgatlioglu back to sixth place to line up behind his Kawasaki teammate. Tom Sykes, after a visit to the pits, crashed out for his third DNF of the weekend. 

At the start of lap nine, the battle for fourth place was four bikes wide down the straight, two seconds off the podium. Alex Lowes came out ahead and behind them, Lecuona, Bassani and Oettl all touched as they barged each other out of optimal lines, with Oettl making the most of it and lining up Razgatlioglu down the straight to start lap eleven, but Razgatlioglu won out on the brakes in to turn one. Ahead of him, Rea took fourth place off Lowes and Razgatlioglu followed him through.

At half race distance, Alvaro Bautista led Michael Ruben Rinaldi by two seconds with Andrea Locatelli a further three and a half seconds further back. Jonathan Rea was over three seconds further back, but he had Alex Lowes, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Axel Bassani, Philipp Oettl, Iker Lecuona, Danielle Petrucci and Dominique Aegerter on his tail as riders with better pace caught Rea, Lowes and Razgatlioglu. Lowes and Rea swapped places lap after lap with Bassani hounding the pair having nearly dropped Razgatlioglu from his tail. 

At the start of lap seventeen, Bassani passed Rea into turn one and held fourth place. At turn four, Alex Lowes lost the front end as he crept under Razgatlioglu and he fell, taking Razgatlioglu with him. With four laps left, Bautista led Rinaldi and Locatelli with almost ten seconds covering the leading three. Bassani held fourth place with Rea, Oettl and Lecuona behind him. Lap twenty and Oettl powered past Rea down the straight, putting four Ducatis in the top five. With two laps left, Rea had no tyre left to catch the Ducatis in front of him and he lost sixth place to Iker Lecuona.

On the last lap, Bautista led Rinaldi by over six seconds and Locatelli by over ten. Axel Bassani had Philipp Oettl to deal with throughout the last lap, Lecuona looked safe from Rea but Aegerter closed on Rea and took seventh place from him cleanly. 

Alvaro Bautista won his third race of the weekend for the second time at Phillip Island, the first time anyone won three races at the same track twice. Michael Ruben Rinaldi recorded a quiet second place ahead of Andrea Locatelli. Axel Bassani and Philipp Oettl put two more Ducatis into the top five, ahead of Iker Lecuona and Dominique Aegerter. With Toprak Razgatlioglu crashing out and Jonathan Rea finishing eighth, Bautista's wins puts him xx points clear at the top of the championship.

Results: