Honda left wanting in Misano, 'braking and corner entry problems' for Bautista

Alvaro Bautista came away from Misano with a seventh, eighth and ninth from the three races, but problems with braking and the Honda's front-end on corner entry continue to plague his 2021 WorldSBK campaign.

The 2019 series runner-up had two tightly contested battles with young Italian Axel Bassani in both feature races. 

Bautista led the Ducati rider heading into the final lap of Sunday’s race two - looking for the same outcome as race one, but a last lap overtake from Bassani resulted in him beating Bautista by just two tenths over the line. 

Although the battle could have gone either way, eighth was the ‘best possible result’ according to the former MotoGP rider. 

Speed hasn’t necessarily been the issue in 2021 as Bautista especially, has been challenging for top five places on occasions. 

Instead, it’s more the feeling he’s getting from the CBR1000RR-R as both he and Leon Haslam have suffered many front-end crashes - an issue Bautista once again encountered in Misano. 

"Today was tougher than yesterday because in the Superpole race we had a problem with the set-up that affected our whole race, in that I couldn't lap as fast as I did yesterday," said Bautista. 

"Finishing outside the top nine also dropped us back on the grid for Race 2. I'm sorry because it was a small mistake, but it prevented us from performing well. 

"In Race 2 I was able to make a good start and gain a lot of positions but, on a more slippery track and considering the braking and corner entry problems we’ve been having all weekend, I struggled more than yesterday. 

"In the end I think eighth was the best possible result today. We have work to do, we know that, but we’ll get it done. I just want to thank HRC and the team as everyone’s working hard on this project. 

"We will be back on track soon for some testing at Navarra and it will be very important to understand the track, one where we’ve never ridden of course, but also continue to work on the bike using the data we have collected this weekend."