Alvaro Bautista “unlucky” in UK WorldSBK first corner incident

Alvaro Bautista says  was “unlucky” to be involved in the multi-rider first corner incident at the UK WorldSBK in Race 1.

Bautista crashed with Yari Montella and Sam Lowes at the first turn. Lowes was taken to the medical centre and diagnosed with a left shoulder contusion but declared fit for Sunday’s races.

Bautista and Montella were unharmed, and Bautista in particular was clear that he was unfortunate to have been caught up in the crash.

Explaining the incident from his perspective, Alvaro Bautista said: “Sincerely, I saw that Montella went a bit wide and he hit Sam [Lowes], and I was on the inside and I clearly saw the bike of Sam jump and turn around and come to me.

“It was like I saw the eyes of the bike looking at me and say ‘Okay, I go for you.’ Unlucky.”

After watching the crash back from the TV broadcast, Bautista reaffirmed that the incident was “unlucky”.

“It’s difficult to say because it’s the first corner, everyone entered,” he said.

“It’s true that Danilo [Petrucci] was inside, but we are 24 riders so you have to pay attention to every rider.

“For me, [I was] unlucky, because I wasn’t involved in the accident and I just found the bike.”

It was not the first time Bautista has been involved in a first lap incident in World Superbike this year, or even one at the first corner. The Spanish rider, who hasn’t qualified on the front row this year and who was 10th on the grid at Donington for Race 1, said, again, that this is down to bad luck.

“For sure if you arrive first in the first corner, you avoid a lot of this kind of situation,” he said.

“But it’s true that, if it’s for this, in all the races, all the riders starting from the back have a problem. It’s not the reality.

“So, I had really bad luck, also because I wasn’t involved in the accident of Yari [Montella] and Sam. Just the situation that the bike turned around and came to me, so I had no touch with another rider or a crash with me. Unlucky.

“For me, it’s better if you start from the front, but if you start from the mid-grid, you don’t have to have these problems.

“In Most, the first race, I started from the back and I had the problem; in Race 2, I started from the second row and I had the problem. So, for me, it doesn’t change too much.”

He added: “We see not a lot of problems in all the races, so these kind of problems happen in like two or three per cent of the races, and unfortunately, this year, every time it happened, I’m involved.

“So, that’s the problem: it happened when I’m there. It has to be like a joke because, at the end, you cannot think too much about this, you can’t do anything.”

Montella “in a sandwich”

“It’s a race accident,” Montella said.

“I found [myself] like in a sandwich. I had Danilo [Petrucci] on my right side, and to not touch him I picked up the bike and I touched Sam Lowes, and also Alvaro [Bautista] crashed for our accident.

“So, I’m so sorry for them, but it’s something that in a race unfortunately can happen and it was not in my control.”

He added: “I explained to Sam that at the end it was not my mistake because I didn’t miss the braking point or something like that.

“At the end, I felt like in a sandwich. Everyone in the first lap wants to recover as [many positions as possible] and to take the best line. But the turn is one and the right line is one.”

Montella picked up a long lap penalty for the turn one incident.

“The problem is just that tomorrow I have to make the long lap penalty for the accident of today,” he said.

“Honestly, it’s something that I don’t understand because, for me, it was not my mistake. I was in a wrong moment at the wrong time.”

He continued: “They [the FIM Stewards] think that it was my mistake. But, at the end, no, because I don’t miss  my braking point, I was not too fast, I was in my position but in a wrong moment.”