Alvaro Bautista “could fight for third” but winning “difficult” at Misano WorldSBK

Two-time WorldSBK Champion Alvaro Bautista says he needs to close the gap to Nicolo Bulega and Toprak Razgatlioglu if he wants to fight for victory at the Misano WorldSBK.

Bautista, who lies fourth in the World Superbike standings after five rounds, was almost a second adrift of the best pace of teammate and current championship leader Nicolo Bulega in FP2, with Toprak Razgatlioglu over 0.6 seconds ahead as well.

Bautista admitted afterwards that it would be “difficult” to see him fighting for victory in this weekend’s races unless he’s able to close the gap.

“For sure, in the morning I felt closer to them [Bulega and Razgatlioglu], but I think in the race it’s different because it’s hotter and it’s more difficult and you feel more the difference than when you have everything in the right place [than if] you have to make some adjustments,” Alvaro Bautista told WorldSBK.com.

“Especially today, I think that, if the race was today, we could fight for third; for victory today was difficult.

“But, in any case, we have more time tomorrow to improve.

“Superpole will be very important because the grid position is very important. Let’s see if we can make a good lap time and a good qualification.”

Explaining the 0.9-second deficit he faces to Bulega after FP2 in Emilia-Romagna, Bautista said he was lacking rear grip.

“I think, in the afternoon, Nicolo [Bulega] and Toprak [Razgatlioglu] made a big improvement, they were quite fast,” he said.

“I missed some rear grip in the afternoon, we didn’t make any changes.

“We will try tomorrow to be closer, but for sure with this temperature you feel more if you are good or not with the setup.

“[Our pace was] like third, but a bit far from the front.

“In any case, I think today has been a good base start and we will try to improve for tomorrow.”

Bautista added that the high temperatures on Friday led him to experiment with front tyre compound.

“In the afternoon, with the higher temperatures, I tried the harder compound [tyre] in the front but, after a few laps, I didn’t feel so comfortable – I missed some grip, especially mid-corner,” he said.

“So, we decided to go back to the softer compound on the front.

“I tried to make a long run and the feeling was not terrible but I missed some rear grip.

“After the morning session, we wanted to make a small adjustment on the rear because already this morning on the rear I didn’t feel so good, but we just waited to see what happened with the temperatures.

“So, at the end, I think we have to make some changes for tomorrow to try to improve.”