Álvaro Bautista didn’t have the best possible finish at the Portimão round of the World Superbike Championship. After a podium finish on Saturday following a recovery from outside the top ten, he finished sixth in the Superpole race on Sunday. In the second race, he quickly moved into the top three but was forced to retire near the end after a collision with Alex Lowes (Kawasaki).
The Spanish rider from Aruba.it Ducati told the official championship website that he felt good with the bike, even under difficult conditions due to the wind, which affected the second race:
– It is strange because I feel good, I am happy because the feeling with the bike is coming back. On Saturday we had a good race, a good performance and in the Superpole race, we also had a very bad start and it was more difficult to recover the distance in ten laps but I was second fastest on the track in the Superpole race. In Race 2, the conditions were tricky because the wind was too strong, so you have to understand which corner is worse. I didn’t make a really good start but not as bad as yesterday, so I could recover positions soon and I understood how the wind affected the track.
During the second race, Bautista had an intense battle with Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW) and believes he could have overtaken the Turkish rider if it weren’t for the crash. Nonetheless, he took away some positive insights: ‘The feeling on the bike was good, I could catch Toprak and it was the first time basically this season that I could do it, so I felt strong. In that moment maybe I felt that I could relax some laps and then attack but it has been a long time since I have fought for victory and I wanted to make a show and to try and play a little bit and have some fun with Toprak. Then unfortunately at Turn 5 he passed me and went a bit wide, I tried to close the lines and then I lost the front. It was a pity because the performance was really good, I felt really strong and for that, I say that I feel good because I can start to ride the bike how I want’.