Bautista: “Then I lost another 20 seconds…”

Demoted to 14th after being one of many to lose his best qualifying lap due to yellow flags, the Spaniard then joined around half the grid in electing to use wet tyres for the tricky conditions.

The wets initially propelled Bautista to third, but the fast-drying track meant his victory hopes were doomed.

A problem while pitting for slicks on lap 5 then saw Bautista drop to 19th place before gaining six posiitons over the next three laps, helped by others pitting ahead.

But the time surrendered was too great to challenge those that started on intermediates and Bautista gained just one more place during the second half of the race.

A winner of 17 races this season, twelfth for Bautista was the lowest he has crossed the finish line since 18th place, for Honda, at Assen 2021.

Despite his huge victory tally this season, the result has also put Toprak Razgatlioglu – runner-up to Jonathan Rea on Saturday - within 54 points of Bautista, with a further 37 points up for grabs this weekend.

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“It wasn't our best day in the office!” Bautista told WorldSBK.com. “But we have to take the positives, which is that I felt not too bad with the bike in the dry after the changes we made for today.

“The race was very difficult because the track was so wet at the beginning. I thought to put slicks, but it was too risky. And I’ve never felt good on intermediates so that was not a choice for me.

“I just tried to take some advantage [on wets] in the first laps but starting further back it’s always more difficult because you have to overtake.

“They cancelled my lap in Superpole, but I was already in the corner when the yellow flag was waved.

“Anyway, starting 14th meant I couldn’t take advantage [at the front] like Bassani, then when I pitted to change tyres we had a problem with the [brake] pads being too close.

“They had to take the tyre back out and open the pads, so I lost another 20 seconds!

“This can happen, it’s part of the game. Without that 20 seconds we would have been seventh or eighth. But that’s how it was, tomorrow will be another day and I hope we can have more fun on the bike tomorrow.”