Alvaro Bautista “felt that I was a passenger” in Estoril WorldSBK Race 1

Alvaro Bautista “felt that I was a passenger” in Estoril WorldSBK Race 1, even before a brake issue struck around the halfway mark.

It’s been common to see Bautista struggle at the start of races for several years in World Superbike but the effect has been more noticeable than ever before in 2025.

Ordinarily, the poor speed at the start of races has been coupled with a poor qualifying, leading sometimes to late charges for the Spanish rider, but also to incidents with other riders in the pack and crashes.

In Estoril, however, he qualified a season-best third and led in the early laps. After he was bumped back to third by Toprak Razgatlioglu and Nicolo Bulega, he was then under pressure from Jonathan Rea and several others, all of whom seemed faster in all areas of the track apart from the straight.

Bautista eventually was able to find his pace and extend a gap of two seconds over Andrea Locatelli, but he admitted after the race that the beginning was especially tough.

“I got a front row start, it was more than one year that I wasn’t in the front row, so I was quite happy,” Alvaro Bautista said, speaking to WorldSBK.com.

“But, in the race, I knew that I would struggle a lot in the first laps, so it was really difficult to keep the pace of Toprak [Razgatlioglu] and Nicolo [Bulega]. 

“I did a good start, I just started to lead the race. But it’s always difficult in the first laps. I felt that I was a passenger, more than a rider. 

“I just tried to keep calm, tried to not take more risks than necessary, and in my mind was a [clear thought]: ‘Don’t make mistakes’; because, in the past, there are many times that I had the chance to reduce the gap in the championship to third place but something happened and I lose more points than I gained. 

“So, today was a day to not make mistakes and get the maximum points as possible, but without overpassing our limits. 

“When I was third, I felt that [I had some riders behind me], but I just kept patient and when the bike allowed me to ride a bit better I started to push a little bit.”

At one point in the race, after he had been able to open a gap over fourth place, Bautista ran wide at turn one, on lap 12. This was down to a front brake issue that affected him to some degree for the rest of the race, he said.

“I had an issue with the front brake at mid-race and I lost all the gap I had gained,” Bautista explained.

“So, I had to restart again. I adjusted the lever but, in any case, I didn’t have a really good feedback in the braking points during the second part of the race. 

“In any case, I tried to manage and not make mistakes.”

On the front brake issue, he added: “It was in that point that I missed the first corner because I arrived and the brake was not effective anymore. After that, after a couple of laps, I was very careful. 

“I did two laps adjusting the lever; one time I went too long, one time too close, so I was playing more with the brake than concentrating to ride.”

Before his pace improved in the second half of the race, Bautista was battling with Jonathan Rea – another rider to encounter a front brake issue in the race.

Bautista said noted the strength not only of Rea at Estoril, but also the Yamaha R1.

“It was nice to have Jonathan [Rea] here behind because he is really strong in this track, he won in the past, and it seems that the Yamaha – even with the long straight – is a bike that works very well here because there are a lot of corners where you need that the bike turns,” Bautista said.

“I knew that in many places he was stronger than me, so I tried to pay more attention to not have any overtakes from him because, if we started to battle, maybe it was worse and maybe I can make more mistakes. 

“So, I tried to keep third position all the time. At the end, I can get some gap with them.”

Petrucci injury “part of the game”

Bautista (and Andrea Locatelli) was handed an opportunity to close in on third place in the World Superbike riders’ standings in Estoril after Danilo Petrucci was declared unfit on Friday after FP1 due to the worsening condition of a hand injury he picked up during training.

Third place for Bautista in Race 1 means he trails Petrucci now by 15 points in the standings with five races remaining, and, while he admitted that a rival’s injury is not the way he would have wanted to close the gap in the championship, he feels it’s a “part of the game”.

“It’s not the way that I like to reduce the gap, but this is part of the game,” Bautista said.

“In the past, I had this year really many occasions that I had bad luck. It’s part of the game. 

“I hope he [Petrucci] can race in Jerez because it’s always nice to battle on-track and win or lose points on-track, against the other riders. 

“I wish him a speedy recovery and let’s see in Jerez if we can fight for third place in the championship, that also with Locatelli we are very close. Let’s see.”