Bautista: WorldSBK hat-trick at Misano “more difficult, Toprak has amazing pace”

What will be the first of two rounds in Italy this season, next month’s Misano WorldSBK round sees Bautista head to Ducati’s home track with a commanding lead in the championship standings.

Toprak Razgatlioglu is the only other rider to have won a race so far this season, but when Bautista has finished, which has been on 11 out of 12 occasions, no one has managed to beat him.

• Razgatlioglu: “Potential is very high, I need a real win” at Misano 
• “We understood where we can improve” - Vierge finds breakthrough at Misano test

Therefore it’s easy to see why Bautista is the clear favourite heading to Misano, however, the former MotoGP rider believes he could be in for a tough challenge. 

"I feel as ready as the other races," said Bautista after last week’s two-day test at Misano. "This track is always difficult because there is a lot of grip on the track. Everybody goes very, very fast and doesn’t care about tyre consumption. 

"This kind of race is more like the fastest guys are the ones who win. It’s not like Catalunya where you have to manage the tyre life. Here, you can push from the start to the end. 

"It will be more difficult because my teammate Rinaldi is a specialist for this track. 

"But also Toprak, he is very, very strong and has an amazing pace. In the test he showed that he is ready to win the races. It will be difficult."

During the test Bautista was faced with dry and wet conditions - two types of conditions he’s already conquered in 2023 - as he went on to claim top spot on both days.

But after a set-up change during the final dry-weather running, one that had the opposite effect that he and Ducati hoped for, Bautista admitted he went back to basics to conclude the Misano test. 

Bautista stated: "In the wet we tried a couple of different electronic set-ups and we found something very positive that helped us to have better performance. 

"In the afternoon we had the chance to do some laps in the dry. The feeling, with the setting we tried, was maybe not what I was expecting. 

"We went back to our standard setting and suddenly I could go faster. 

"I’m happy because we did the test we wanted to do. The feeling with the bike is really good."