Race 2 of the Motul Portuguese Round at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve provided lots of action, excitement and drama which allowed a number of riders to secure their best finish of the season so far in MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. One of the riders was Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC), who picked up a fifth-place finish at Portimao, his best finish since making the switch from Ducati to Honda machinery.

The Spanish rider took advantage of mishaps from Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team) as well as battling back from 12^th on the grid and moving up seven places; showing impressive race pace especially as the race neared its conclusion.

Discussing the result, Bautista said: “Today, we tried to improve the feeling from yesterday which was quite good. In the morning, I struggled a little bit. In the Superpole Race, I feel like I’m riding to my limit and the limit of my bike. I don’t have that extra speed compared to the other riders and maybe in the Superpole Race I lost a lot at the beginning and couldn’t recover.

“This afternoon the track was more slippery than other days and you see a lot of crashes, so you have to manage the situation and adapt to the conditions. I understand how much I can push and try to do the maximum. We are making very small steps forward, but we are Honda, we are HRC, we want to win. We are happy with the small step forwards, but we are not happy because we want to be at the front.”

With improvements shown throughout the season, Bautista and teammate Leon Haslam will be hoping the team can continue to show improvements in terms of both lap time and positions. The fifth place for Bautista at Portimao will give everyone involved in the team a huge confidence boost as they prepare for a MotorLand Aragon double header in a couple of weeks.

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