Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) made his return to the rostrum at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”, hosting the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round. The two-time MOTUL FIM Superbike World Champion failed to taste the Prosecco at Most last round for the first time since Jerez 2024; however, Race 2 saw the #19 bounce back, improving on the timesheet in each race, culminating in a third-place rostrum result in Race 2.

HUNGRY FOR MORE: “Finishing on the podium is always nice, but the gap between the two riders in front of me is too big right now”

While Bautista’s Race 2 was his most successful result of the weekend, as he has said in the past, Bautista values highly his sensation atop the bike and how it responds to his riding. He highlighted Saturday as a positive reference, despite not placing as high. Track temperature seemed to be an issue for many of the grid’s riders over the balmy weekend in Italy, as by Sunday’s Race 2, the track temperature had climbed to 48ºC.

On his Weekend at Misano, Bautista said: “For sure it is a big relief to be back on the podium after not being there since Cremona for one reason or another. I’m happy with how we ended the weekend, but I’m not too pleased with the feedback from the bike. On Sunday, I struggled in the hot conditions, while on Saturday, I started from the back, and we had the pace to fight for the podium. In Race 2, I started from P5, so it was a bit easier, but the feeling was similar; it was difficult to stop the bike, difficult to change direction, and it struggled on both corner entries and exits. I could feel it wanting to push me out. I was fighting with the bike throughout the entire race, but in the end, I was able to stay consistent and avoid mistakes. Finishing on the podium is always nice, but the feeling was not the best. We need to improve, especially in hot conditions, and the gap between the two riders in front of me is too big right now. We need to reduce that gap, but I’m happy because in this difficult weekend on and off the track, we managed to keep focused, so I want to thank my team for this hard work.”

“You always have to be more careful with your teammates, but in the end, the goal is to be the fastest” – Bautista on his battle with Bulega

After lights out at Race 2, as the factory Ducati riders made their charge up the grid towards the podium positions, an intriguing scene unfolded when the teammates in red came across one another. Nicolo Bulega had started his race back in P10, but strong early pace from ‘Bulegas’ pushed him up the order P6 by the start of Lap 2. In front of him, rode his #19 teammate, who was in no rush to let the Championship leader pass him. Bautista put on a strong defensive performance over the next two laps to hold off the faster Italian sophomore. Eventually, the #11 passed him on his way to claim P2, but the Spaniard was not far behind, as he had a strong race of his own to finish in P3.

On his Race 2 battle with Bulega, Bautista said: “I was focused on my own race, to me in that moment Nicolo was just another rider, just that he had much better pace than me, that’s all. If it were another rider, I would have done exactly the same. It would have been stupid to try to follow him or let him overtake to overtake him back later when his pace was faster than mine. I could also see him once he passed me, and I saw how he was able to do better lines than I and go more precisely than I could, so it would have been stupid to fight against him. It was not about it being Nicolo, it was that he had better pace than I did, and that’s all. For sure, you always must be more careful with your teammates, but in the end, they are one rider more, and the goal is to be the fastest.”

Bautista will return in just under a month with the rest of the grid when they take on Donington July 11-13^th! Watch live or on-demand with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!