Starting from eighth position and finishing third at the finish line Alvaro Bautista ended Saturday in Jerez satisfied not only with his result, but above all with the good duels in which he was involved. "It was a fun race. It's too bad that the battle was for third place and not for the win, but at least I put on a show. Overall I'm happy because yesterday I did not feel very comfortable on the bike, a bit like last year so much so that I crashed as I was on the limit, but after making a change to the set-up this morning, everything was solved in no time," he said then highlighting the usual problems that have been accompanying him for months.
"As always the first few laps I was a passenger. When I try to ride the bike in a certain way, it doesn't follow me. After 6/7 laps the situation improves, but before that I can only try to defend and not lose so much. This is a lesson I learned as I went along since in the first few rounds I was pushing from the start more than the bike could support and I would crash. Now, however, I can be consistent," he explained.
The Spaniard was the protagonist of a head-to-head battle with Vierge and Alex Lowes complete with a double overtake at the same time. "When you have two riders close together it can happen. Generally you try to pass one of them. At some point you're there, you brake and you realize you're in danger of hitting the other one, so you can just release the brakes and go long, but I was lucky to stop the bike. It was good. At Turn 2 I also made a good save because I was almost on the ground and I was lucky there too. At that point Xavi and Iannone passed me again, anyway I had fun with those overtakes," he confessed.
On the approach with which he approached Race 1, the Spaniard then revealed, "Yesterday afternoon I realized I had to keep my mind clear and not think too much about free practice because I was very frustrated not being able to ride. So, I promised myself to do the race on Locatelli who was my reference for the weekend. However, my crew chief Giulio Nava proposed me to make a totally different modification, I agreed and there was an improvement."
The Italian engineer himself has decided not to follow the former MotoGP rider in his adventure with Barni in 2026, but to move to Yamaha where he will be responsible for Locatelli: "It's life and part of the process, but I will definitely miss him. It will be strange for me to sit in the box and see different faces, but I am very proud of the work we have done together. We started in MotoGP with a completely new project like Aprilia also getting several good finishes in the final period and in SBK you know the story. I consider him a member of my family, an older brother. Sometimes, however, a change can be positive as it allows a change in perspective. Getting out of the comfort zone can lead to improvement or deterioration, but I want to be optimistic and believe that it will lead me to be more competitive. I want to think of it as a breath of fresh air."
Despite being in the sport for so many years the excitement of the podium and hearing one's name shouted by the fans is always great: "It gives me even more pleasure because now I understand a lot more, life and its details. When you're young and everything is going well you think life is all in color, but then when you get to be almost 41 like me, with a family and so many good and bad experiences behind you, you can appreciate things a lot more. When people come and talk to me and tell me they remember seeing me race in such an event, it's something special. It's part of the game and part of the motivation."
Taking stock of the recent years with the Aruba team, he then asserted, "These last two years have been more complicated than expected, and the only way to get back to what we were before would be to have the same regulations as back then and equal bikes for everyone. Now they wanted to balance the performance by taking the heavier riders as a reference. But why not the smaller ones or why not use a 10 cm long handlebar for those who are taller? So, in my opinion we should go back to everyone racing under the same conditions and keep only the minimum weight of the bike because everyone can still have advantages for a certain characteristic. In this category those who weigh less are penalized."
Finally, when asked about the best moment in his career path he replied, "Hard to choose one. However, I would say the championship won in 2022 after a lot of work and difficulties experienced in Honda. To arrive and win was the pinnacle of my career."