Alvaro Bautista's (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) home Tissot Aragon Round wasn’t quite the triumphant homecoming the rider from Madrid had hoped for; however, a podium double will come as a welcome lift. The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship has drawn the curtains on Round 10 at Aragon. With just six races remaining, the WorldSBK title picture has narrowed down to the top pair, but veteran and two-time World Champion Bautista has a chance to complete a stunning comeback at Jerez if the cards fall his way.

RACE 1 REGRETS: “I was feeling genuinely really down; it’s been one of the worst feelings after a crash that I’ve felt recently. It’s been painful”

The Spaniard’s Sunday was a strong close to Round 10, as he, in a similar fashion to much of this season, was unable to hang with Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in front of him. Despite lacking a very positive feeling with his bike on Sunday, he made up for his Race 1 crash out from P5, a mistake he strongly regrets as he had hoped to make a charge for the podium past his rival for the Championship P3 position, Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) in P4 and Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) in front of him.

“I’m satisfied with today, but I’m feeling a big pain from my Race 1 mistake. I think I lost a good opportunity on Saturday to fight for the podium. Also, on Sunday, however, I was struggling because I felt a lot of inertia with the bike; I couldn’t move the bike as I wanted to, so I had to force the tyres a lot. Even pushing 100%, I was losing time. The situation is quite difficult. In Race 1, I felt a bit more comfortable; the bike seemed to follow my movements more closely, and I caught up with the front group. When I was following Danilo, I was preparing to make a move on the corner exit down the back straight when I lost the front. I was feeling genuinely really down; it’s been one of the worst feelings after a crash that I’ve felt recently. It’s been painful.”

MISSED PODIUM SHOT: “Today that was the maximum we could achieve, so we have to be happy, but I have some things I feel like I missed on Saturday”

Alvaro Bautista has been very vocal this season about his frustrations with the current minimum weight regulations, as the extra ballast applied to his bike to comply with the statute, he feels, interferes with his riding ability. This makes the starts of races difficult for the #19 to manage, as he states that he struggles to control the bike in the early laps, when there is the most fuel in the tank, which accounts for additional weight. He states these were factors in his struggles this weekend, not just in his inability to make up the gap behind the lead pair, but palso laying a role in his Saturday crash.

 On his Race 2, Bautista said: “On Sunday, the feeling was better, but I knew that the maximum we can hope for in this situation is to fight for the podium because in the first laps I can try to force a lot, but the inertia with the bike is always difficult. In Race 2 especially, a lot of riders overtook me, and I needed time to recover. By the time I was third, the gap was too big. I tried to reduce it, and I could do the same pace, but I couldn’t decrease the gap. That’s all, today that was the maximum we could achieve, so we have to be happy, but I have some things I feel like I missed on Saturday.”

BRONZE MEDAL BATTLE: “Our priority is to be third place in the Championship”

Despite having more podium finishes this season than both Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha), who sit between the Spaniard and P3, Bautista sits behind both of them. #19 sits back in P5 in the Championship standings, 31 points behind Petrucci in P3, due in large part to the crashes he has suffered. Since Misano, Bautista has had five DNFs, the third most of the entire field across that period.

On his title projections, Bautista said: “Our priority is to be third place in the Championship. This is why I felt so much regret about yesterday; we have only two rounds to go, and the gap is now very big. In the end, the top three in the Championship is not 100% up to me, Andrea and Danilo have to lose a lot of points as well as me performing well. On the track, I feel like I’m the third rider, but in the Championship, I see that I am fifth. We will try to improve the feeling and try to ride with the mind free.”

Next up: Estoril! Tune in on October 10^th with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now just €9.99!