Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) had a difficult Race 1 at the Acerbis Czech Round as he saw Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) eat into his MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship lead again after finishing only 12th in a flag-to-flag battle at the Autodrom Most. Bautista fought his way up the order in the early stages before a slow pit stop to change tyres cost him almost 20 seconds, and from there he was unable to respond as he finished outside the top ten for the first time since he was 11th in the Tissot Superpole Race in Argentina in 2021.
The reigning Champion’s Saturday got off to a difficult start with the #1 thinking he would start seventh, but the FIM Stewards deleted this lap time as it was set under yellow flags at Turns 20-21 following a crash for Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team). The Ducati rider had to start from 14th but, with rain falling before Race 1, opted for wet tyres, and surged up the order as Pirelli’s SCR1 tyres were in their element.
He was running third for the first four laps before he opted to switch his rain tyres for slicks as he looked to surge back up the order, but he lost around 18 seconds in the pit stops which meant he dropped behind Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team); both of whom were behind Bautista on track when the #1 boxed.
Explaining what caused the 20 second delay, which potentially cost him ninth place and a chance to fight with Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) and Aegerter, Bautista said: “I thought about putting the slicks on, but it was too risky, and with the intermediate tyres, I’ve never felt good because I don’t go fast in the wet or dry. I just tried to take some advantage in the first few laps but starting from the back is always more difficult because I had to overtake other riders. When I entered the box to change tyres, we had a problem with the parts. They were a bit closer, and the front tyre didn’t go on. They had to take it out, open it and put it back on so I lost around 20 seconds.”
Summing up his Saturday in general, Bautista said: “It hasn’t been our best day in the office! I have to take the positives. We could do some laps in the dry, with the dry setup, and that’s the important thing; that I started to feel not so bad with the bikes. We made some changes from yesterday and I felt better. We have some data and feeling. Let’s see if we tomorrow will be a bit better tomorrow!”
With Bautista down in P12 and Razgatlioglu finishing ten places ahead, the gap in the Championship was cut further. After the #54 brought it down to 70 points after Race 2 at Imola, he cut another 16 points out of Bautista’s lead in the Czech Republic, with 54 points separating the duo now. Bautista will be looking to fight back on Sunday with the Tissot Superpole Race, where he will again start from 14th, and Race 2 in the afternoon for the last race before the summer break.
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Source: WorldSBK.com