Bautista after Pedrosa wild card: “It’s more pressure, I have to do what he did”

As a prize for winning the 2022 WorldSBK title, Bautista is set for a return to MotoGP in the form of a wild card appearance in Malaysia. 

In complete control of the 2023 standings after yet another victory in Race 2 at Magny-Cours, Bautista could have the Superbike title wrapped by the time he competes in Malaysia.

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While the expectation won’t be the same as Dani Pedrosa, who is KTM’s test rider and has already taken part in a wild card at Jerez earlier this season, the Ducati rider is aiming to replicate Pedrosa’ showing at Misano.

Pedrosa claimed two P4 finishes and was the top KTM on both occasions.

Speaking about Pedrosa’s performance, Bautista added: "I didn’t see the race! I’m happy for him because it means that the level of the riders from our generation is so high. 

"Even with the young riders, he is pushing. Let’s see what happens at Sepang! 

"Right now, it’s more pressure for me because I have to do what he did! I am happy because he’s a nice guy and a great rider."

In the aftermath of his Race 2 win, Bautista also switched his focus back to Superbikes and spoke about the incident that saw him receive no penalty for taking out teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi during the Superpole Race.

Battling for the race lead along with Toprak Razgatlioglu, Bautista clipped the rear of Rinaldi’s bike after arriving at turn five too quickly.

The contact resulted in Rinaldi crashing out of the lead, while Razgatlioglu was gifted a comfortable lead before taking victory.

"Sincerely, under my point of view, it was a racing incident," added Bautista. "There wasn’t space there, as I was on the inside. 

"I can’t go to the outside because Toprak is there and I was braking at my maximum. I couldn’t stop the bike more. 

"Michael was in front and I couldn’t stop anymore. Race direction have their opinion; sometimes you agree and sometimes not, but in the end, in the past, I’ve had to accept their decision. 

"They have many cameras to analyse what happened in reality. For sure, on TV, you can see one thing but, on the inside, it’s not the same thing. 

"Watching from the front isn’t easy because you don’t know how far we are one to another. It’s not easy to decide just on that. 

"Whatever they say, you have to accept whether you agree or not. Every incident is different, so you have to understand why it happened."