Bautista: “Anything can happen until the chequered flag”

Alvaro Bautista completely turned around his Czech Republic meet by the time the chequered flag waved in race two, taking a historic win to place himself back in control of the 2023 WorldSBK championship.

Lisa Lewis

30 Jul 2023

Alvaro Bautista, Race 2, Czech WorldSBK, 30 July

Aruba.it Racing rider Alvaro Bautista had the odds of a good performance stacked against him as his weekend faltered on Saturday placing fourteenth in Superpole, which he could only translate to a small improvement of twelfth in race one.

Problems started when the reigning champion had his best time deleted in Superpole, having been set under yellow flags for Dominique Aegerter’s crash in that session. That was compounded by tyre woes in race one with choosing the wrong option for the wet weather further impacted by a lengthy pit stop.

Still full of fight, Bautista set about putting himself back in play on Sunday. That reversal of fortunes began in the Superpole race, where he sped through the field to move into third after passing Axel Bassani on the last lap.

Bautista credited the effort he and the team put into that race for getting him into contention for the win and a complete reversal of fortunes by the end of race two:

“I didn’t expect to win this weekend, especially after a really tough Friday and Saturday. I always believed in myself, tried to be calm and do my best. The Superpole Race was the key. I knew it was important to have a good race and improve the position from P14 on the grid for Race 2. I was fifth or sixth on Lap 1, I think it was one of the best starts of my life!

When I was fourth, I was lapping similarly to the three guys in front of me and I thought P4 was nice for Race 2. After mid-race, I saw Bassani dropping a little bit. When it was two laps to go, I tried to close the gap and did my best lap on the penultimate lap. I was very close in the last two corners, and I knew I was a bit stronger than him there”.

That set up the #1 plated rider for a front row start for the final race of the weekend at Autodrom Most, and the thrillting battle that ended all too soon as tyre trouble took Toprak Razgatioglu out of contention with six laps remaining, handing Bautista a clear lead over his rivals:

“Third position was nice for Race 2. I had a good battle with Toprak. He always tried to put the bike on the inside at Turn 1. Even if we missed the corner, he was in front. One time, I tried to stay on the inside, but I didn’t want to miss the first corner to avoid him passing me exiting between Turns 1 and 2. He came from the outside and the same”.

“He missed the corner, but he was in front! It was fun. In races, anything can happen until the chequered flag. It’s the good and bad thing about racing. I’m really happy.”

The win was an important one for both rider and championship.

Victory brings Bautista to his 50th win, an elite club with only former champions Troy Bayliss(52), Carl Fogarty (59) and current rider and six time champion Jonathan Rea (119) having more.

It is also the first time in the history of WorldSBK that any one rider has won eighteen races in one season.

In terms of this season, Bautista now has an increased points tally of 427, exiting the Czech Republic with a gap four points larger than he started with after Razgatlioglu saw his attempts to chip away at the difference wiped out.

The World Superbike championship returns after the summer break at Magny-Cours over the weekend of 8-10 September.