Alvaro Bautista targeting mistake-free weekend to secure 2025 WorldSBK “target”

Two-time WorldSBK Champion Alvaro Bautista enters the final round of the 2025 season with third place in the WorldSBK standings in his sights, but he needs a clean weekend to secure it.

Eight points separate Bautista from his rivals in the fight for third, and the Spanish rider has a home round advantage at the season finale, although the 2024 edition of the Jerez race did not go well for Bautista with only one point scored across the three races.

Working in Bautista’s favour, though, is the positive feeling he discovered in Estoril two weeks ago where he was able to finish on the podium in all three races for only the second time this season after the Italian Round in May.

“To finish the season at home is always nice, to have the support from my family, friends, my fan club, so it’s always special,” Alvaro Bautista told WorldSBK.com ahead of the Spanish Round.

“But it’s another race. We have to work hard from Friday.

“We have a good feeling from the last round where we were quite consistent through the weekend, so we will try to do the same here. 

“For sure, our target is to fight for third place in the championship, so we will try to not make any mistakes like we did in Estoril and try to be focused, try to get the maximum in all the situations, and that’s all.”

Third in the standings will be decided between Bautista and Andrea Locatelli only, since Danilo Petrucci was declared unfit.

Bautista was sympathetic to Petrucci’s situation and admitted the Italian has had a season to be proud of.

“I’m so sorry for Danilo [Petrucci] because for sure it’s not the best way to defend the third place in the standings,” he said.

“But unfortunately this is also part of the game, a bit unlucky. 

“I also have to congratulate him because he did really an amazing season, he didn’t make mistakes and he was very good through the season, so congrats to him even if he cannot fight on-track for the third place. I think he has to be very proud of his season.”

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider is also wary of Yamaha’s Locatelli, who was on the podium at Jerez in 2024’s Race 1.

“For sure, here Locatelli is very strong, I saw in other seasons and he was on the podium a couple of times,” Bautista said.

“So, it will be difficult, especially because I don’t have really good memories from last year when we were with a lot of trouble, but every year is difficult. 

“We have to keep the same good feeling we had in Estoril, try to start from there and try to improve during the sessions and for the races.”

Locatelli: “When I started the season I was never thinking about 3rd”

For Andrea Locatelli, just to be in the fight for third in the World Superbike standings is an overachievement versus his own expectations at the start of the season.

But the Italian is now trying to minimise the pressure on himself ahead of the final round, and feels he needs some luck in order to take the bronze medal.

“For sure, when I started the season I was never thinking about [finishing third in the championship],” Locatelli told WorldSBK.com.

“For sure now we have the possibility, we are in the last round, but I don’t want to have any pressure about it because, like always, I try to do my best. 

“If it will be a ‘lucky’ weekend for us, maybe we will finish in the top-three; if not, in any case, for me it will be overall a good season because, in the end, I did my best every time. 

“The target also of this weekend will be to go on-track and do our best. Then, what’s happening is sometimes not under control, we cannot control, so let’s see. 

“I don’t want to cross any fingers [...], so just believing and try to do and trust myself to do my best and then we see if we can have a party about the top-three or no.”