Jo🐟nathan Rea dominates the fi𒊎rst 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 Razgatlioglu 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. Razgatlioglu slotted into second with Rea directly behind him on track. 

Bautist✱a’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-tim🙈e World Superbike champion regained top spot by over five tenths, showing he’s just as comfortable 🥃in the wet as he is in the dry.   

Iꦚker Lecuona continued his impressive rookie campaign after spending most of the warm-up session inside the top five. 

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

Rea then🔯 broke the 1m 49s barrier in what 𝔍was quickly becoming a dominant performance from the Kawasaki rider. 

Loris Baz went third fastest after a solid 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 R𝔍azgatlioglu took the lead.

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

Prior to the race getting underway, Rea made a bold move 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 w﷽ho were ไrunning the SCX option. 

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

There was an early attempt from Rea 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 to bounce back from his𒁃 mistake and claw back Razgatlioglu, Rea set a new fastest lap on lap four, while Bautista ♐claimed third off Andrea Locatelli. 

With a comfortable lead, Razgatlioglu then made a mistake of his own as he ran wide at turn three, an error th♋at allow🌠ed Rea to take the lead. 

Now hi💛s turn to stalk Rea, Razgatlioglu was in no mood to wait as he delivered a brilliant late-braking move at tu♕rn one to take the lead. 

As the lead changed again be🐓tween Rea and Razg🉐atlioglu at turn one, the battle was helping Bautista slowly gain time. 

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

Lap 11 and Bautista gained another half second to br🧔ing the gap down to 🐼1.5 seconds. 

After another three laps of o▨vertaking between Razgatlioglu and Rea [turn one], Bautista was nꦚow within a second of the two leaders. 

With Rea now fully under pressure from Bautista, the Kawasaki ridᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚer fluffed his lineꦉs at turn one and ran wide which allowed the Spaniard into second place. 

Once into second pl𓆏ace, Bautista managed to drop ꦗRea as he slowly closed in on Razgatlioglu. 

But with four laps to go, Razgatlioglu responded in brilliant fas🐭hion to extend🌊 his lead back to seven tenths. 

A very strong 18th 🎃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 get ahe🐻ad before turn one, but the reigning world champion came right back at the Spanaird on the brakes to𝓡 somehow keep the lead.

Just as it appeared as though Razgatlioglu put together a perfect last lap, the Turkish star was slow off the final corner as Bautista got the drive in order to pip Razgatlioglu across the line. &nb👍sp;

There were early problems for Pedercini Ka✃wasaki rider Isaac Vinales as h🐷is 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