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Bautista, who joined the series after nine seasons in MotoGP, qualified for the first time of the race in the last race of the season to complete his career.
Defending champion Jonathan Rea had raced near Bautista in the 10-lap sprint earlier Sunday, but that proved to be a false omen for the third full race.
Bautista easily kept the advantage on the line, while his teammate Leon Haslam quickly clinched Rea at the right turn of Turn 4.
Haslam could hardly keep up the pressure on Bautista, the Spaniard gaining almost a second at every lap of the circuit.
But the reigning British Superbike Champion held Rea well off for the first half of the race. When Rea finally approached and made the decision at turn one on lap 15, Haslam immediately regained his place in turn 4.
While Yamaha drivers Marco Melandri and Michael van der Mark are closer to the Kawasaki duo, Rea made another turn in Turn 1 with Haslam a lap later, keeping the second place for more than a handful of turns.
The duo then traded their position in round 1 for four straight rounds before Rea consolidated his place after a missing block-block of Haslam on lap four of the penultimate lap.
Bautista, who had long disappeared on the road, unleashed the accelerator as he approached the line but still won by more than 12 seconds.
By finishing second for the third time this weekend, Rea made his first winless run since mid-2017, while Haslam was two tenths late on his second podium finish of the weekend.
The Yamaa could not finally compete with the Kawasaki and were fighting for their position, while van der Mark and his team-mate Yamaha Alex Lowes won the GRT Melandri driver for respectively fourth and fifth in the final laps.
Bautista's teammate, Chaz Davies, moved from 16th to 7th, getting his best result on what was a tough first weekend with the new Panigale V4 R motorcycle.
His GRT teammate Sandro Cortese took eighth place, while GoEleven driver Ducati Eugene Laverty narrowly beat Leon Camier's Honda team in the ninth.
BMW motorcycles from the factory had a muted run against Tom Sykes's exploits earlier in the weekend, and Sykes himself had been beaten in 12th place by teammate Markus Reiterberger.
The second Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda plant took 15th place on the Japanese return.
Althea Honda rider Alessandro Delbianco briefly delayed the start due to a technical problem and then immediately left the race in a rapid crash.
Bautista will start the second round of the season in Thailand, leading Rea to 13 points in the runners' championship.
Race results
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