Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) suffered a first crash of the year at Jerez, showing that he isn’t infallible after all. Now, the 34-year-old Spaniard heads to Misano, a circuit which holds special memories for him, in hope of rekindling his formidable form and to extend his championship lead.

However, it won’t be easy, as in recent seasons, Kawasaki have been the dominant manufacturer at Misano, taking every pole position since 2011 and winning a staggering nine out of the last ten races held at the Italian circuit, set just a few kilometres from the Adriatic Coast. Can Alvaro Bautista conquer this Kawasaki Kingdom?

“It was a pity about my crash at Jerez, but as I said at the time, that’s racing, so there’s no point in dwelling on it too much,” said a forthright Bautista, who was quick to put his Jerez error behind him. “Now we look forward to the next race in Misano, where we did some tests a few weeks ago. Although the conditions weren’t great, we managed to get some references for this weekend.”

During the aforementioned test, Bautista suffered his first crash on WorldSBK machinery, at one of the fast, right handers towards the end of the lap. Whilst Bautista was OK, his bike was not and suffering his first crash on a Superbike will bring with it and edge of caution this weekend.

“I’m looking forward to trying to keep the same feeling with the Panigale V4 R and continue the good work we’ve done so far. Misano is a second home race for the ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati team and Ducati, and we will for sure have a lot of fans to support us.”

Ducati last achieved a pole position at Misano back in 2009, with Jakub Smrz, whilst their last win came in 2017, when Marco Melandri achieved his first victory since re-joining WorldSBK that season.

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