Colour change but result stays the same as Rinaldi calls Bautista “unbelievable”

Alvaro Bautista’s dominant 2023 WorldSBK campaign continued in Race 1 at Misano as he cleared off ahead of teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Robert Jones

04 Jun 2023

Alvaro Bautista, Ducati WorldSBK Misano 2023

While the early laps saw Rinaldi stay within reach of the WorldSBK champion, Bautista’s rhythm was sensational throughout as he continued to lap in the high 1m 33s and low 1m 34s.

With others began to lose pace as expected due to tyre wear, Bautista kept pumping in fast lap times which eventually led to him opening a huge lead.

"Today, I'm happy because it has been a good day for Ducati," said Bautista. "I had really good feedback again with the bike, even in those conditions.

"In Race 1, it was really warm, and the feeling with the bike was amazing. Now I can be very consistent and very fast from the first lap, so I'm happy.

"Maybe it seems easy from the outside, but believe me, I had to push very hard to maintain this race pace.

"I was in the 1'33s high, 1'34s low for almost the entire race, and it was not easy. However, I was enjoying every corner, and I was able to stay focused and concentrated throughout the race."

While Rinaldi was comfortably beaten by Bautista again, the Italian was easily the second best rider.

After dropping Toprak Razgatlioglu early on, Rinaldi suffered no repeat of his tyre dramas from the final race in Mandalika, as he instead kept a solid pace.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi , Race 1, Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK, 3 June

Rinaldi finished over three seconds clear of the Yamaha rider which was a margin he managed to open up by mid-race distance.

Rinaldi said: "I’m very happy for myself and for the team because it was a 1-2 and that’s always great!

"I’m really happy about my kind of performance, I didn’t expect to have this kind of race pace, but I was able to lap quickly.

"I couldn’t explain how Alvaro was doing his pace, he was riding absolutely unbelievably, so he deserves the win.

"I’m happy about what we’ve done; compared to last year and in 2021 when I won, I’m seven or eight tenths faster per lap so I’m really happy about this. For sure, I’ll try and win sooner or later. I’m really happy about this result."