Alex Lowes swept to a Sunday double at Phillip Island in Australia to lead the World Superbike Championship after the opening round as Jonathan Rea crashed out on a disastrous debut weekend with his new Pata Prometeon Yamaha team.
Rea – 17th in Saturday’s first race of the season – was 10th in the earlier Superpole race before the 37-year-old came off his R1 machine at Turn 11 in Race 2 at the end of the third lap, moments after he had climbed as high as fourth place when Toprak Razgatlioglu suffered a technical issue on his factory ROKiT BMW.
The race was red-flagged after Rea’s crash and the six-time champion was carried away on a stretcher, although he was reported to be conscious.
By contrast, Briton Lowes had a dream weekend for Kawasaki as he returned to the top step in World Superbikes for the first time in four years, when the 33-year-old triumphed in Race 2 at Phillip Island in 2020.
Earlier, Lowes won the Superpole race by 1.1s from Locatelli with Razgatlioglu sealing his first podium as a BMW rider in third.
Saturday race winner Bulega recovered from a poor start to clinch fifth ahead of Rinaldi. Lowes leads the championship on 50 points after the first round, nine ahead of Bulega, with Locatelli 12 points further back in third.
