Former WorldSBK champion waited three weeks for Assen “reward”

Former WorldSBK champion Alvaro Bautista says he had to wait three weeks for a “reward” for work he did in Portimao.

The Spanish rider was on the podium at the opening round of the season in Australia, but that came in the rain. In general, he’s struggled to find a good feeling aboard the new Ducati Panigale V4 R since moving to the Barni Spark team over the World Superbike off-season, and that showed at round two in Portimao where he was ninth in the first two races before crashing out of Race 2.

Assen, though, has been better so far, finishing fourth in Race 2 after securing his best qualifying of the year in seventh.

Bautista said after Race 1 that the better result came not only from an improved Superpole performance, but from work done three weeks ago at the difficult Portuguese Round.

“Basically, I’m really happy with the weekend so far because after the Portimao round, that we worked a lot, we found something on Sunday but I crashed and I could not have the reward of the work,” Alvaro Bautista explained, speaking to WorldSBK.com after Race 1 in Assen.

“But, for sure, we collected a lot of data and here, from yesterday, we started with a different setup just following my feeling with the bike and what I think that I need to get a good feeling on the bike and push. 

“So, yesterday felt much better than the previous rounds, it allowed me to get more confidence, and today we did another step in that direction and allowed me to be more competitive – also in Superpole that normally I struggle more. It allowed me to start more in front and I did a good start.”

Bautista added that the race itself was split into two parts: first, fighting to keep track position over Alex Lowes, and then using the rain that arrived around lap 14 to his advantage.

“In the first few laps I tried to defend the fourth place because I knew that especially in the first few laps is when I feel more problems with the bike because it’s a lot heavy and I struggle a lot to stop, I struggle a lot to make it turn, to have grip, so it’s the worst moment for me, the first five or six laps of the race,” he said.

“So, I tried to defend the position with Alex [Lowes]. We had a really interesting fight: he tried to overtake me in some places, but he used a lot the brake and missed, maybe, the traction, and I used the traction to recover position. 

“After mid-race the rain came and it was a bit tricky, the condition. But I kept concentrated, I saw the riders in front of me reduce a lot the speed, but I thought ‘Okay, if they pass the corner, I can pass’ – so maybe I reduced [the speed] a bit less, I can catch them a lot.”

When the rain subsided with a few laps to go, Bautista found he had no front grip to attack with.

“Then, when the rain slowed a little bit, I tried to push again, but the feeling with the tyre was different, so I miss a lot of grip, especially on the front: I was not able to push harder because I was much closer but I cannot push harder,” he explained.

“In any case, I think the important thing is the feeling I’m recovering with the bike. Now I feel much closer to our normal performance, so we will try to keep this way. 

“Now I feel much better with the team, the team know me much better and it’s easier to arrive to a solution. Let’s see if we can keep this way.”

Explaining further, Bautista added that the relationship with the Barni team has taken a couple of rounds to grow because of the lack of track time in winter testing which has heavily affected by rain.

“In Portimao, was a difficult weekend because we didn’t make winter tests and in Australia the feeling is always difficult because the track is very special, also Race 2 in Australia we finished on the podium but it was on wet, so it depends more on the feeling you can do with the bike in those conditions,” he said.

“But Portimao was the reality, and definitely we were very bad. The feeling with the bike was terrible. 

“But after Friday, Saturday, I had some ideas and for Sunday we did a change in the bike, with my request. From there, my engineer started to know me better and I could feel better the change we did because I could start to ride in a different way. 

“After Sunday in Portimao, we analysed all the data and we decided here to make a change on the setup that allowed me to go in that direction and to have the feeling that I started to have in Portimao Race 2. 

“So, we are now following my feeling, following the data, but going together. We haven’t a lot of time for work together in [time at the track], so it’s what I need, what we need: more time on track and trying, trying, trying.”