Alvaro Bautista struggles at Jerez: ‘I felt a lot of pain in my neck and back’

Alvaro Bautista was not his usual self on day one of the Jerez WorldSBK test, as pain in his neck and back reduced him to only a P10 finish.

The factory Ducati star has recently recovered from an injury at the tail end of last season, which impacted his MotoGP wildcard at Sepang.

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And although he’s over the worst of his injury, it caused the Spaniard a bit of discomfort as he attempted to iron out ballast concerns at Jerez.

Speaking to WorldSBK.com, Bautista said: “It’s not been the best day for me. I struggled a lot during this winter. I had a lot of pain in my injury after the Sepang race. I was really bad.

“I cannot have good training and I was working hard with my physiotherapist to recover. It wasn’t easy because November and December, I was almost with pain all day. I didn’t feet improvement.

“I started to feel better in the last two weeks, and I started to work more on myself. Riding the bike in the morning, the strength in my arm was really good, but the problem was in my neck and back.

“I felt a lot of pain. I was really worried but, fortunately, lap after lap, it felt better so I got more relaxed, and I could do a lot of laps but not with my best performance. I was thinking more about the pain than riding the bike.”

Bautista has already admitted that work to iron out how much weight will be needed to reach the new rider-bike weight limit has begun.

Bautista is one of the lightest riders on the grid and Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall’Igna hinted at six kilos needing to be added to the weight of his bike.

“We did the job because, after the test last year, we decided to have two different bikes regarding the weight distribution,” added Bautista. 

“I could compare both bikes and it was very clear which direction we’ll take for the future. I’m happy about that and I’m happy for the feeling I have with the bike.

“I don’t know how much weight I’ve added. The engineers know how much and know where to add it. I don’t have these kinds of details. I just tell them if it’s better or worse. I don’t know! You’ll have to ask Giulio Nava or Marco Zambenedetti.

“It’s much worse to ride because, with more weight, you have more inertia, so it’s more difficult to turn in the corners and stop the bike. It’s more physical and all the areas are worse.”