SBK | Bautista and Ducati shine in the dark of Toprak and Rea

A hat-trick, two doubles, five victories in five races: these are just some of Ducati’s stratospheric numbers, which inaugurated the season in grand style, colonizing Phillip Island and turning it red. The opening round of the 2023 World Superbike championship speaks Italian, specifically from Bologna, with the Borgo Panigale manufacturer dominating and leaving nothing but crumbs to the opponents.

Alvaro Bautista is undoubtedly the spearhead of the entire team, in 2022 he brought Ducati back to the top of the world by winning the world championship and there are all the conditions for continuing to dominate. The Spaniard imposed himself in all conditions, and Phillip Island offered moments of uncertainty and excitement: over the three days we went from high temperatures to rain, passing through wind and sun with lower temperatures.

We had already seen from the tests that domination was within the reach of the Bautista-Panigale V4R pairing, despite the Spaniard keeping a low profile. But the fact that he then achieved such dominance as to leave his opponents incredulous was a big surprise during the weekend. You know, the tests offer an initial picture, but then the race always tells another story, often not exactly coinciding with the reality you see during the winter. Difficulty coefficients increase and unexpected events are around the corner. But if we had one certainty in this Australia, it is represented by Ducati.

The Panigale won all three races run, five if you count the two in Supersport, in which Nicolò Bulega triumphed. With his triumph in the Superpole Race, Alvaro Bautista reached 35 victories, becoming the fifth most successful rider in Superbike history and overtaking Tom Sykes. The Iberian is really in shape and, after what he considers “the best winter of his career”, he has shown himself to be even more solid and effective, thanks to the title conquered and the great confidence he has with the Panigale V4R, innovated and further improved for this 2023.

Ducati leaves Australia with full loot, 62 points were up for grabs and 62 were won by Bautista, just as Bulega collected 50 points in the Supersport class. The Spaniard’s advantage in the standings is already large, the first of his pursuers is, surprisingly, Andrea Locatelli, who pays a gap of 28 points, while the two more “noble” rivals, Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu, are third and sixth with a gap of 31 and 39 points respectively.

Faced with a situation like the one we saw at Phillip Island, at Mandalika the opponents are already called to reduce the large gap created both from a technical point of view and from a standings point of view. Of course, a Ducati that dominates in all conditions and does so with relative ease instills great fear in its adversaries, who, however, are only at the start of the run-up.

But what happened to Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu? In the light emanating from Bautista, which shines from the winter tests, the two rivals live in the dark, aware at Phillip Island that the steps forward made during the stop weren’t enough to catch up with Ducati. A few too many problems conditioned the weekend for the Northern Irishman, who had to fight with his Kawasaki before even giving Bautista a hard time, while the Turkish rider appeared to be in trouble throughout the weekend, with the exception of the flash on Saturday morning when took pole position.

The Yamaha rider ran into a zero which in a situation like the current one is already heavy: Race 2 is really a worry for Toprak, who often ends up being involved in accidents that force him to close the race early. In the fight for fourth position he was overwhelmed by an innocent Alex Lowes, who lost the front by hitting the Turkish R1. No physical consequences, but a slip on the track and in the standings already sound heavy, also considering the excellent performance of his teammate Locatelli, author of a solid weekend and second in the championship at 31 points from the leader.

“This year it won’t be just me, Toprak and Johnny who share the victories,” Bautista said over the weekend, referring to his emerging rivals. In fact, the difficulties of Alvaro’s two rivals are allowing other contenders to make their way and to aspire to podium positions, which until 2022 seemed armored. Michael Ruben Rinaldi also shone, and with the exception of the misstep in Race 1 he was author of two second places which allowed Ducati to celebrate two doubles.

Not only factory bikes, the Ducati of Borgo Panigale boasted four bikes in the top five positions in Race 2, with Axel Bassani and Philipp Oettl producing incredible performances, equal if not better than what we all believed could be Bautista’s obvious rivals . Despite a complicated winter, Danilo Petrucci also performed well overall, and with ninth position in Race 2 he gave Ducati the possibility of having all the bikes in the top 10.

The Phillip Island round therefore seems to have outlined the values ​​in the field, but there is a however: historically, the Australian track has always made its own story, offering a realistic but not complete vision. In fact, its particularity has always led it to not be a yardstick. However, the next round is less than a week away, in Mandalika we will return to battle and, with a weekend already behind us, we will be able to have new references to get an idea of ​​the direction this season will take.