Alvaro Bautista clinches second WorldSBK title at Jerez
Holding a 60-point lead over Toprak Razgatlioglu with only 62 available heading into the weekend, Bautista needed just two points no matter what results were for the Yamaha rider.
The 2023 campaign has been an even more dominant one for Bautista compared to his first, starting with a triple win at the very first round as part of his 24 race wins prior to the Spanish round getting underway.
That’s 18 more than his main rival Razgatlioglu, who had kept himself in the championship hunt through his stunning consistency.
That form continued with Bautista winning race 1 from pole in Jerez, ensuring the 38 year old has won a race at every round the World Superbike paddock has visited in 2023.
The records did not stop there with it being back-to-back world titles - a feat not managed on a Ducati since Carl Fogarty in 1999. The only other more recent rider with mutiple titles to his name is six time champion Jonathan Rea.
Bautista celebrated the win in style - changing into golden race leathers for his return to parc ferme and the podium presentation, enjoying the atmosphere of taking the title on home soil, with his fan club well represented.
In terms of numbers Bautista takes the title with a total of 591, holding an unbeatable 65 point advantage over Razgatlioglu The Turkish rider is currently on 526, with more points still on the table for the duo in Sunday’s races.
Speaking to WorldSBK after the race Bautista was clearly elated:
"What can I say, it’s a perfect weekend until now, yeah I’m so happy it’s incredible to win a detail but it’s more incredible to defend a detail and to do it in your home race, it’s something that even in my best dreams I can’t imagine this and also I’m so happy. I felt so good all the weekend - thanks to everybody here because the track is incredible -full of people! Thanks to them, for everybody for coming here, thank you to my team because they support my really well throughout the season, Ducati, the sponsors, yeah - a perfect day for me today!"
Bautista still has two more chances to add to his title winning tally on Sunday, with the Superpole race and race 2 still to be run at Jerez.
