Alvaro Bautista explains what went wrong to cause crash at Hungarian WorldSBK

Alvaro Bautista crashed out of Race 2 at the Hungarian WorldSBK.

The Aruba.it Ducati rider fell from fourth place at Balaton Park on Lap 6.

It was a setback in the veteran’s quest to claim third place in the World Superbike Championship. He has fallen to fifth.

Alvaro Bautista explained: “I had a good position in Race 2. I used it to make a good start and take the lead.

“But, as yesterday, I had problems in the first laps. I felt like a passenger more than a rider.

“I tried to defend my position as much as possible. But on Lap 5 I missed the line between Turn 7 and 8.

“I went a bit out of the curve and I lost the front. The crash was nasty.

“Fortunately, I am okay physically. I don’t have any pain. That is a good sign.”

He added: “A couple of corners before, I felt like yesterday - a feeling that I was riding the bike better. But then I crashed!

“This is racing. We have to learn for the future, and try not to make more mistakes.”

Alvaro Bautista tyre gamble pays off

Earlier on Sunday, in the Superpole race, Bautista finished third behind Toprak Razgatlioglu and Sam Lowes. It was the 1000th WorldSBK race.

His bet to race with slick tyres paid dividends.

Bautista said: “The track was so tricky. I did two sighting laps to understand, to check the track condition.

“It was complicated because it was drying, but not fast. Some areas were completely dry, some were wet.

“I chose the slick tyre because it was not possible to use the wet tyre for all of the race. The intermediate? In the past, it has never worked for me in the wet or dry.

“In the warm-up we saw that the grip in the wet was quite good.

“We took a gamble but I saw many riders on the grid choose the same tyre.”

Razgatlioglu leads the WorldSBK standings ahead of title rival Nicolo Bulega.

Danilo Petrucci is now third, Andrea Locatelli fourth, leaving Bautista fifth after his error in Race 2 on Sunday in Hungary,

Bautista said: “Every time we are closed to P3, we have a problem. This time it was my fault but in the past I have had incidents with other riders which were not my fault, so we are missing a lot of points.

“There are riders fighting for third in the championship. Let’s see. We will try not to make mistakes or have more incidents.”