WorldSBK Most: Bautista proves Pirelli’s SCX is no big advantage

One race win and two other podiums saw WorldSBK championship leader Alvaro Bautista move 31 points ahead of Jonathan Rea, but lose some ground to double race winner Toprak Razgatlioglu, who is now a reduced 38 points back from the lead.

At the beginning of the weekend the lack of an SCX tyre for the long races was a big deal. They said it would disadvantage the smaller, lighter riders who could use it in even the longer races.

But for Bautista, the reality was that whatever tyre he had, he was still competitive. “Nobody knows what happened to the tyre,” said Bautista. “This was the tyre. This was the races, that’s all. We don’t have to think about if the other tyre… The other tyre is there. Here it is this. At the end we can make the tyre work. We were also competitive with this tyre.”

As the points and three stunning WorldSBK races at Most suggest, it is a Bautista, Rea and Razgatlioglu fight, and it has been up close and personal more than once.

Now Bautista has had a chance to compare the riding styles and characteristics of his two main rivals, what does he see?

“The difference between both is that maybe battling with Toprak, if he can go faster than you, he tries to overtake you. At least with me. I don’t speak about Jonathan, because they try every corner to pass each other.

But for me, when he tries to pass me, it’s because he has something that maybe he can go faster. Also he tries to pass you without mistakes. Jonathan is more like, I want to pass you to stay in front of you.

“Maybe I don’t have more, but at least you aren’t in front of me. So, sometimes it’s more for disturbing or concentrating more than he has extra more to go fast. But, both are very difficult to beat.”

Bautista, do you remember, still has a