Bautista wins first-ever World Superbike sprint race

Full WorldSBK sprint race results from Phillip Island

Alvaro Bautista has continued to make World Superbike history by winning the first-ever sprint race fending off a race-long battle with Jonathan Rea.

In a shake-up to the World Superbike race weekend format for 2019, a new third race held over 10 laps has been introduced with the winning rider claiming 12 championship points and the top nine taking sequential points.

Bautista and Rea traded passes for the lead over the opening half of the sprint distance before the reigning World Superbike champion gradually lost contact with the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider who used the new V4 R’s top-end speed to his advantage on the start/finish straight.

As a result, Bautista claimed victory by just over one second ahead of Rea while behind them Leon Haslam secured his first podium since returning to the World Superbike championship this year.

Alex Lowes won the all-Yamaha midfield battle in fourth place ahead of Pata Yamaha team-mate Michael van der Mark with GRT Yamaha duo Marco Melandri and Sandro Cortese in sixth and seventh respectively.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) and Eugene Laverty (Go Eleven Ducati) rounded out the top nine and points places with Chaz Davies promoted to 10^th place after Leandro Mercado triggered final-lap skittles which also took down Jordi Torres and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Tom Sykes recovered to 11^th after running wide at Turn 1 at the start of lap two ahead of BMW team-mate Markus Reiterberger in 12^th place. Honda duo Leon Camier and Ryuichi Kiyonari could only manage 13^th and 14^th respectively.