Bautista: “I could not stop the bike, the slipstream absorbed me”

Alvaro Bautista says the slipstream behind Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael Ruben Rinaldi led to him being unable to avoid his teammate during the clash at the Magny-Cours WorldSBK round.

Robert Jones

10 Sep 2023

Alvaro Bautista, Ducati WorldSBK Magny-Cours 2023

Winner of the third race of the weekend, Sunday got off to the worst possible start for Ducati as Bautista and Rinaldi came to blows in the Superpole Race.

Bautista ran into the back of Rinaldi at turn five after Razgatlioglu managed to position his Yamaha on the inside of turn five.

With Rinaldi having to pick up his Panigale V4 R, Bautista, who was also fancying a move for the lead, hit the rear of his teammate which led to Rinaldi crashing out.

Summing up his weekend, Bautista said this after Race 2: "I’m so happy to end the weekend like this, especially because I didn’t start so well being ill on Thursday.

"I was recovering through the weekend and today I feel almost 100% with my energy. Technically it has also been a weekend of less to more and even though our pace from Friday was good, yesterday we had an issue with the engine.

"Looking at the pace after the race, I think we could have fought for the win yesterday. In the Superpole Race it was exciting and everybody used the SC2 tyre.

"I have to say that it worked really well and Pirelli did a really good job with the new SCQ tyre for the race. It has a lot of performance and you have the durability to do ten laps without problem.

"We had a really good battle with Toprak and my teammate Michael. But in turn five we had an incident because we all arrived together, and with the slipstream I could not stop the bike.

"The slipstream absorbed me and I tried to avoid the impact.

"Toprak went to the inside and Michael had to pick up the bike and I found him in the middle of the way. Sorry for Michael because he was really strong and could fight for the win."

Despite a red flag seeing him lose his advantage at the start of Race 2, Bautista quickly set about dominating the remaining 17 laps when it got back underway.

The winner by over five seconds from Razgatlioglu, Bautista was in a league of his own as he restored a near 60 point lead in the standings.

"Race 2 with this condition was difficult but was similar to yesterday and I knew the feeling with the bike," added the Aruba.it Ducati rider.

"I tried to do a good start but after five laps the race was stopped and it was difficult because in that moment I really felt good with the bike and was riding really well.

"I tried to not go away from that feeling. It didn’t matter if the race stopped I just wanted to have the feeling again.

"The second start I felt really good with the bike and could push from the beginning. In the end I was alone and kept pushing because I enjoyed sliding the bike on the entry to the corner."