Bautista Battle's Back to Take Race 2 Victory At Incident-Packed Mandalika

Ducati's Alvaro Bautista continued his incredible start to the 2023 world superbike season after making it five wins from six races in race 2 of the Indonesian round on Sunday.

Starting from tenth, Bautista fought his way through the field and made the crucial race-winning overtake on A teammate, Ruben Rinaldi with two laps to go.
 
It was an incident-packed race at the Mandalika International Street Circuit, which saw a red flag on lap 8 after Michael Van Der Mark and Philipp Oettl were involved in a heavy crash.
 
Both riders retired from the race and van der mark was taken for a medical check-up following the collision.
 
the race distance was reduced to 14 laps and Rinaldi lead the field at the restart.
 
current champion Bautista who switched the s-c-zero Tyre for the s-c-x during the red flag, made his way past Toprak Razgatlioglu for second, before setting his sights on teammate Rinaldi.
 
on lap 13, Bautista made the pass at turn 10 to clinch his fifth victory of the season and move onto 112 points in the championship, 37 ahead of Yamaha's Razgatlioglu in second.
 
there was also a maiden podium for Xavi Vierge, who took full advantage when Rinaldi ran wide at turn 10 on the final lap, allowing Razgatlioglu and the honda to move up to second and third respectively.