WorldSBK Indonesia: Bautista missing favoured front tyre

Alvaro Bautista did not become the WorldSBK champion on his Aruba Ducati V4R - on Saturday at least - in Indonesia and the fact the front Pirelli he favours is missing from this weekend’s allocation hasn’t helped.

Toprak Razgatlioglu was just too fast and too good, and Buatista realised this at the end of race one. He also knew as early as Friday he would be toiling compared to some previous tracks because his favoured front tyre did not make the allocation taken to Indonesia.

“Yeah. Sincerely, Toprak is in a good level. Also it’s true that I’m missing front feeling with the tyre. Pirelli didn’t bring the tyre that I use normally,” said Bautista, speaking at the track.

“So yesterday I struggled. Today as well. We are trying to make it work, but this tyre for me is more difficult because it doesn’t allow me to be precise, and I did more mistakes. I think this is the worst track to make a mistake (because it has such a narrow current line.

“So, at the end, to catch Toprak today I had to risk more than normal. So, today the maximum I can arrive was second.”

Bautista had little hope that there would be some kind of large sale improvement. “I don’t think so,” said Bautista. “Maybe instead of 60 centimetre, we have 62. The problem is that tomorrow will be even worse because maybe more rubber on the out area. The difference is even bigger.

This morning in superpole, I did turn five, six, and I just put the front on the black line but the rear was a bit outside. I did all the time sliding. Dangerous because the grip is zero. So, it’s not easy to do a race with these conditions. It’s clear it’s the same for everybody, but also with the front that I don’t have the good feeling… For me, this weekend is very tough. So we will try to