Bautista: I expected more fighting for victory, but nothing was easy

After winning the Superpole race in equally dominant style as Saturday’s race one, Bautista started the final WorldSBK race of the weekend from pole, which he made the most of by leading into turn one.

Gradually building a comfortable lead in the previous two races, the Ducati rider, who was trailed by team-mate Michael Ruben Rinaldi after the Italian went from fifth to second off the start, put the hammer down immediately in race two in order to gap the chasing group by over a second.

Bautista never looked back as he eventually went on to win by over eight second in what was arguably his best performance of the season.

Not only that, but Bautista’s first hat-trick of 2022 has also seen him extend his championship lead to a staggering 59 points over Toprak Razgatlioglu.  

Speaking after race two, Bautista said: "Seems like an easy weekend, but in reality, nothing was easy! I’m so happy to have the three race wins here because this season the competition is so high and it’s more difficult than three years ago. 

"Yesterday and today, in the long races I just tried to manage the tyres and the pace. I was quite comfortable. 

"Sincerely, for the short race we missed something - yesterday on the Superpole - and today in warm-up we tried something different on the electronics to use the tyre more and don’t care about the consumption. 

"We tried it and I liked it. We used it for the Superpole race. It helped me a lot. For sure, it was closer than the other two races but also I expected more fighting for the victory. I could keep my pace from the beginning and I could win."  

Mistakes cost Rea a third Catalunya WorldSBK podium

While Jonathan Rea seemed to be the second quickest rider in race two, the six-time WorldSBK champion made several mistakes, including one with just four laps to go which resulted in him losing over two seconds in the battle with Rinaldi and Razgatlioglu for second.

Rea managed to claw back over half the time he lost while also passing a struggling Axel Bassani in the process, however, it wasn’t enough to mount a late challenge for the podium. 

Rea said: "The race was, let’s say under control for our expectations until about six laps to go. I was behind Rinaldi and starting to plot how the end of the race would play out. 

"But I went into turn one and found neutral even though I was coming from fourth [gear], to third, to second. But yeah, I couldn’t stop the bike and all I could do [to stop the bike]. I had no engine brake and the front was jumping. 

"Anyway, I stayed on the track, rammed it back into gear and set off [again] Axel came passed but I made quick work of him and just focused on Toprak just to fight until the end. My rhythm was good at the end but I just ran out of laps."