While most riders in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship started their summer break as soon as the Acerbis Czech Round concluded, Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) travelled from the Czech Republic to Italy for a second test on the Ducati Desmosedici GP. The test took place at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” with the Ducati test team as the WorldSBK #1 joined Michele Pirro for the test.

Bautista first jumped on the Desmosedici GP in June at Misano which was a reward for winning the WorldSBK title in 2022. Key figures at Ducati were left impressed by Bautista’s performance on the MotoGP™ machine despite not riding one for five years, with his last MotoGP™ race taking place in 2018. There have been discussions about a potential wildcard this year for the reigning WorldSBK Champion although nothing has been confirmed by either the team, manufacturer, or rider.

Reflecting on his latest test, Bautista said: “I’m really happy to have had another test with the MotoGP™ bike. After the first test I did, the feeling was really good, and I felt comfortable on the bike. I wanted to repeat another test. After this two-day test, I’m very happy because we continued with the same progression from the first test. I’m getting a better feeling with the bike and a better reference. We improved our feeling on the bike. We started to work more on the setup for myself and I can say that it has been two really positive days of testing, getting better feedback day by day.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com