Alvaro Bautista ‘not worried’ by FP2 position, ‘I stopped a lot’

Alvaro Bautista concluded day-one of the WorldSBK season-opener in 12th place on combined times.

A five tenths gap separated Bautista from pacesetter Alex Lowes, but with mixed conditions and heavy wind dominating the day, plus electronics issues on Bautista’s machine, a clear picture of the order was hard to take away.

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“It was a very ‘special’ Friday for everybody because in both practices it started raining just before,” said Bautista. “We didn’t make a lot of time on track and in FP2 we found some issues with the electronics. 

“Also, we tried a different set-up to improve my feeling and it didn’t work. I stopped a lot of times and didn’t do a lot of laps. 

“But the few laps that I did with the set-up that I used this morning, and was quite happy with, I was good and consistent.

“I’m happy with today because my physical condition is good and I felt more flow on the bike. My feelings are coming.

“Then, about the position; the lap times are really fast and everybody is very close. I’m not worried about the position and I’m more focused on myself and my feelings. It was a short but positive Friday.”

Bautista was seen wagging his hand when re-entering the box during FP2, but the two-time world champion played it down after the session.

“It was the total of everything because it started to rain before and I tried to make a lap to see the condition, but then there was a red flag,” added Bautista. 

“Then, when I started again I had an electronic issue and then I restarted again with the set-up that I didn’t feel comfortable with, so in the end it was chaos.

“But the important thing is that I got a good feeling with the bike in the end.”

When speaking about his chances for this weekend, Bautista was confident that he will be in the mix.

The Spaniard said: “I’m confident in myself and that the feeling with the bike is coming. Step-by-step it’s getting better and we will try to improve every session tomorrow.

“I think I can do 20 laps with the tyres, not like doing a time attack every lap. It was possible to do 20 laps and it depends how you work with your bike.

“But we have to make a compulsory pit stop and the strategy has to be to do two Superpole races.”