Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) left his mark at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” after completing two days of testing in Italy on the Desmosedici GP machine. He tested on both Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a prize for winning last year’s MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship title but key figures at Ducati were left impressed after Bautista adapted quickly and showed rapid pace despite not chasing a lap time.

Bautista completed a total of around 100 laps across the two days and set a best lap time of 1’32.590s during his fourth stint on Day 2. The time came on the seventh lap of that run as he used the soft tyres, although there was no time attack for the reigning World Superbike Champion. Despite not looking for a time, his performance across the two days left Ducati happy as he adjusted quickly to the MotoGP™ machine which requires a different style to ride.

Serafino Foti, the Team Manager at Aruba.it Racing – Ducati, said: “To be honest, it’s been a really good test because Alvaro did a really good job. He was quite fast. I’m surprised. He actually got the feeling really quickly. This surprised me. It’s not easy to jump to MotoGP™ from WorldSBK and get this feeling. Now I understand why he makes the difference in World Superbike. From my point of view, he’s on another level. We were impressed for the performance and the approach. Now I understand really well. Of course, we have a good bike, but he makes the difference.”

The test was with the Aruba.it Racing team that has run wildcards with Michele Pirro across 2022 and 2023, with Pirro, Ducati’s test rider, also at the test. Marco Palmerini, the Ducati Test Team Manager, was on site and he was able to give his views on the test. He admitted he was ‘surprised’ by how quickly Bautista was able to adapt but described it as ‘exciting’.

Palmerini added: “It was really exciting because Alvaro was really fast from the beginning. He’s adapted to the riding style which performs the best for MotoGP™ and coming from a different kind of bike, this was really surprising. It’s very difficult to change from WorldSBK to MotoGP™. You have different tyres and brakes. In half a day, Alvaro immediately understood how to ride with these tyres, and he started using the brakes exactly as he needed to do.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com