“Gap more important than the position” for Alvaro Bautista at UK WorldSBK

Alvaro Bautista says he is more concerned by his gap to the riders ahead of him than his position in Race 2 at the UK WorldSBK.

In contrast to Danilo Petrucci’s third place in Race 1, that was taken with a margin of 11 seconds to the winner, Bautista was three seconds behind Toprak Razgatlioglu in Race 2.

The Spaniard said afterwards that this was more important than finishing on the podium.

“I’m happy, because I was third, but I was not third like yesterday, more than 10 seconds [from the front], I was third by just a couple of tenths," Alvaro Bautista explained after the race.

“For me, it’s more important the gap than the position.”

Bautista was able to catch Nicolo Bulega by three seconds in the closing laps of the race, but he said a mistake at turns nine and 10 cost him a chance to take second.

“Two laps to go, I did a mistake in Foggy Esses because I wanted to be close to Nicolo [Bulega] in the last lap, but I braked too hard and went long so I lost like three-tenths in the chicane,” Bautista explained.

“So, the three tenths that I miss to arrive closer to him in the penultimate corner [were lost there].”

Bautista added that he was unable to pass Bulega in the final corners because the Italian, who lost the World Superbike points lead with his second-place finish behind Razgatlioglu, made no mistakes in defence.

“The last corner is really tricky because when you brake you don’t see the corner, really, so you are braking for the reference but you cannot adjust the braking because you don’t see the corner, you just see the corner when you [enter],” he said.

“So, he knows that I was there, and he closed very well.

“I think it was a stupid manoeuvre to just go inside.

“So, I just tried to [hope] that he went a bit long and I could cross the line, but he stopped the bike well.

“So, in any case, I’m happy with my performance. For sure, not [happy] with the result, because we can fight for better results, but it’s the situation we have and I think we are getting the maximum we can.”