Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) starred in his most productive weekend of the 2021 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, both due to the points achieved and the fact that he had been competitive throughout the Motul France Round. Despite qualifying 14th in the Tissot Superpole, thus forced to come back from the fifth row of the grid, the Talavera rider was able to finish Race 1 on Saturday in a magnificent sixth position.

On Sunday, in the 10-lap Tissot Superpole Race, he had to look for another good result to score more points and improve his starting position in the last race of the weekend. Bautista made a very quick start from 14th and climbed to ninth at the end of the first lap. He then was able to pass his teammate Leon Haslam on lap eight and finished the Superpole Race in seventh place. The Spaniard started Race 2 from that seventh place, was able to gain ground in the central phase of the race, passing both Michael Van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) to advance to sixth place, a position he held until the line to secure some important points in the Championship. Bautista revealed after the race that Team HRC had made some small changes to the setup and electronics of the bike which helped Bautista by giving him a confidence boost.

“Today I am happy with the performance of the weekend because we worked really well,” said Bautista on Sunday afternoon. “We had made some small modifications to the bike especially on the setup and also on the electronics. We didn’t find anything big, but it was a step that gave me a bit more confidence. Already from the morning, I felt a bit better with the bike. In the Superpole Race, which we normally struggle a lot in just ten laps, I was able to be competitive. I made a really good comeback from 14^th on the grid to finish seventh and allowed me to have a better position on the grid for Race 2.

“In Race 2, track conditions were trickier and more slippery than the other times. It seems like the track was over 40 degrees and this is strange at this track! In any case, I understand very well how the track was and how much I could push. It was a bit worse than in the morning but, in any case, my feeling was better than other times we had these kinds of conditions.”

Follow the WorldSBK action throughout the 2021 campaign with the WorldSBK VideoPass!