WorldSBK Donington: Bautista ‘keeping calm, no more mistakes’

Alvaro Bautista’s Donington Park WorldSBK weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts after a crash, from second, on his Aruba.it Ducati.

Jonathan Rea’s eventual second place in Saturday’s race took him to within 16 points of the championship lead after Bautista crashed out on his factory Panigale. Too much trail brake into Goddards, trying to take too tight a line… it has been the sight of hundreds of similar falls over the years.

It was a surprise to the Spaniard, however, who escaped with a small wrist contusion, as he had not particularly looked like falling before then, however desperate the fights between him and Rea had been.

“That corner is always a bit tricky,” said Bautista afterwards. “You never do the same line because it’s difficult. It depends how the bike moves or how you keep the bumps. It was a big pity because in that time, I braked hard, like other times, but maybe I tried to…not force… but tried to enter.

“In that moment, I took the bump and I lost the front. In racing, it can happen.

“I’m happy because our performance was quite good,” he continued. “I felt quite strong on the bike. Toprak was very fast at the beginning. Then after a few laps, Jonathan start to pass me, but just to stop me. More than because he had more pace than me… he was just to stop my pace. I tried to defend then I thought, ‘okay, if you want to be in front of me, just stay and try to catch Toprak maybe’. I thought, ‘maybe he has a couple of tenths more than me and we can catch together Toprak’, but no. In fact, we were slower. So, I just stay some laps behind him. Then because I saw him a bit on the limit, I tried to stay in the front and tried to get a tenth or a couple of tenths that I thought that I can go faster. He did just