Bautista: 'Feeling better than expected', Rinaldi suffers with back pain

Alvaro Bautista was one of three riders to go underneath the official Portimao WorldSBK lap record after finishing third in the two day test. 

The Portimao test, which was Bautista’s first on track action for Ducati this year, managed to finish just behind WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu and former 2019 rival Jonathan Rea.

With the official lap record currently a 1:40.219s set by Razgatlioglu during qualifying for the 2021 Portuguese round, the Yamaha rider and Rea both set the first ever 1m 39s laps, with Razgatlioglu posting an exact time of 1:39.619s. 

Although Bautista wasn’t quite able to break the 1m 40s barrier, the former MotoGP rider still went underneath Razgatlioglu’s previous pole time by two tenths - set a 1:40.055s. 

While it was a promising test in terms of speed and consistency, Bautista wasn’t mistake-free as he suffered a turn 8 crash during day-two. 

In terms of what was tested by Ducati, both Bautista and Rinaldi tried the team’s new swingarm along with a new fuel tank. 

"I am very satisfied with these two days of testing," said Bautista. "The feeling is already good and I am having a lot of fun. I feel that the experience I have gained over the last few years is helping me. 

"If I have to be honest, I have found myself on the bike better than I expected. We worked a lot on the tyres today, trying out the new solution brought in by Pirelli. 

"I am only sorry for the crash this morning: I made a mistake, luckily without consequences. I can't wait to be at Misano."

On the other side of the Ducati garage it was another difficult test for Rinaldi who was over five tenths off Bautista on day one, before back pain limited the four-time WorldSBK race winner on Wednesday. 

Rinaldi ultimately finished the Portimao test seventh quickest - 1.5 seconds off Razgatlioglu’s time. 

"It has been a tough two days of testing. On the first day, we lapped without working on the set-up in particular: the feeling was positive, and - with the race tyre - we had better results than last year's race," added Rinaldi. 

"Today we concentrated on some new solutions without trying to set the lap-time. Unfortunately, because of the pain in my back, I wasn't able to try the new SCQ brought by Pirelli."