Andrea Iannone cemented his name in the World Superbikes history winner books by winning the first race at Aragon.
His first race win in the series arrived after four years on the sidelines due to his ban. He becomes yet another rider to win in both MotoGP and World Superbikes.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Garrett Gerloff joined the Italian on the rostrum with a BMW 2-3 result.
As for the start of the race, Ducati’s dominance around Aragon was evident based on previous results, with the Bologna marque starting in the top four positions for the first time in World Superbikes for two decades in this year’s first race.
Iannone shot up the inside of Nicolo Bulega to lead with Razgatlıoğlu back into the fold following two race weekend absence.
Sam Lowes suffered a huge high side due to oil caught up on his rear tyre inside only three corners into the race, resulting in a red flag when the marshals checked the track conditions.
The race continued with 17 laps left to go, but without Bulega, with the Ducati rider’s bike smoking on the warm-up lap, putting him out of the frame altogether.
The race restarted with Iannone sustaining the lead into Turn 1, before Andrea Locatelli divebombing Alvaro Bautista who fell down to seventh.
Iannone and Cremona treble winner Danilo Petrucci mustered an advantage out front, with Alex Lowes and Razgatlıoğlu fighting for the final podium spot.
Locatelli and Bautista jostled for the sixth spot, with second RoKiT BMW Motorrad rider Michael van der Mark up to fifth.
It was confirmed on Lap 3 that Locatelli fell down the pecking order to 16th, putting himself out of contention following early spells that indicated a possible podium fight.
Iannone, Razgatlıoğlu, Petrucci, Bautista and Lowes were the five main protagonists heading into the halfway mark.
The Turkish rider and championship leader overtook down the back straight before Iannone replied on his inside, with the race winner looking more impossible to call after each lap.
Bautista and Petrucci clashed for the final podium spots before an opportunistic Lowes aboard his Kawasaki separated the duo, with the latter retaining third place.
Gerloff arrived onto the scene on Lap 7 despite a lacklustre qualifying spot, while Petrucci formulated fast moves on Razgatlıoğlu and Iannone in quick succession to take the lead.
Bautista formulated a move on Lowes before running wide at Turn 1, meaning, yet again, he had all the work to do to regain a podium spot.
Iannone caught Petrucci napping to overtake his fellow Italian inside the first sector, allowing Gerloff to snatch third spot following mistakes from riders.
On Lap 9, the chaos continued on a whole new level, with Petrucci losing his lead and falling to sixth in the space of a sector. Iannone sneaked his way through, causing Petrucci to lose his racing line slightly, which led to all riders in the top five forcing their way through.
Petrucci regained the fifth spot with Bautista ahead, but the top three, consisting of Iannone, Gerloff and Razgatlıoğlu, formulated a second lead out front.
Razgatlıoğlu made the move on his BMW counterpart Gerloff down into Turn 1 on Lap 12, with Bautista digging in deep to bridge the gap closer to the front.
The Spanish veteran set the fastest lap, but the leaders matched to ensure the trio kept hold of their positions.
Out front, Iannone upped the ante with three laps to go to stretch out a comfortable lead and take the victory.
Razgatlıoğlu achieved second in his first race back after suffering a punctured lung in Magny-Cours and gained 20 points on Bulega in the title fight.
Gerloff and Bautista battled hard on the last-lap, but Gerloff managed to hold on for the final spot on the rostrum.
Bautista and Petrucci narrowly missed out on a podium spot with fourth and fifth all the pair could muster, with Iker Lecuona finishing sixth for Honda.
Lowes finished seventh despite his early pace showings, with Xavi Vierge and Van der Mark occupying eighth and ninth spots, respectively.
Locatelli recovered from his drop to 16th to finish tenth as the lead Yamaha rider, with Scott Redding and Axel Bassani finishing 11th and 12th.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi climbed five positions from an 18th qualification to salvage 13th and two-points for the team.
The final two-point scoring positions belonged to Brits Jonathan Rea and Bradley Ray, sealing 14th and 15th respectively.
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