Bautista's WSBK win streak finally broken after Imola crash

Bautista has been the dominant force in WSBK so far, winning 16 out of 18 races in the first six rounds of the year - including all feature races.

But that run came to an end in the final race at Imola, where having gotten into the lead with a brilliant launch from second, he fell off his Ducati into the right-hander that completes the Turns 2/3 chicane.

It marked Bautista’s only second retirement of the season after his DNF in the superpole race at Mandalika and meant that he missed out on his first chance to break the record for most race wins in a season, having scored his 17th victory earlier in the weekend in Race 1

However, with 12 races still to go, Bautista remains primed to eclipse the tally achieved by Doug Polen in 1991 and then equalled by Jonathan Rea in 2018 and '19.

Bautista’s retirement paved the way for Razgatlioglu to score his fourth win of the year and first in a full-distance race, although he had to fight hard with the satellite Ducati of Bassani in order to score his double win since Indonesia in 2022.

Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

After Bautista crashed out at Turn 3, Locatelli had to take evasive action, allowing Razgatlioglu back into the lead of the race.

Locatelli wouldn’t feature in the lead battle and it would be Bassani who would take the fight to the Turkish ace, after climbing from sixth on the grid.

After running behind Razgatlioglu for several laps, Bassani passed the 26-year-old at Tosa on lap 8, even managing to build a small lead in the shortened 15-lap race.

But Razgatlioglu managed to close back in on Bassani and managed to execute a clean pass into Rivazza 1 on lap 12, with the move ensuring he remains the only rider to win a race in 2023 other than Bautista.

The result also helped Razgatlioglu bring down the deficit to Bautista to 70 points with four rounds and 12 races still to run in the season.

Rea completed the podium for Kawasaki in third after a weekend in which the Japanese manufacturer elected not to take advantage of the additional revs handed to it under concession rules.