Is Alvaro Bautista back and can anyone stop him in Catalunya?

Since re-joining Ducati, Alvaro Bautista has been nearly untouchable in Catalunya and the two-time WorldSBK champion was very strong during day-one of the test last week.

The second day didn’t quite go to plan for Bautista as he admitted he felt worse from the beginning, but the reigning world champion made steps forward that should put him in position to challenge for victory this weekend. 

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Bautista has won the last six races in Barcelona and most of them have been in very dominant fashion.

Even during his time with Honda, Bautista was very strong at his home round as he claimed one of his three Honda podiums in Catalunya.

But will his improved feeling be enough to win again this weekend?

The likely answer to that is yes but Bautista’s team-mate Nicolo Bulega was still the rider to beat during the test.

Bulega topped both days and had very good pace in both qualifying and race trim.

The WorldSBK rookie showed that he can win when he took the checkered flag first in Race 1 of the season-opener, becoming the first WorldSSP champion to ever win on his debut.

Then there’s Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci, both of whom are also on Ducati bikes and both went very well in Phillip Island and the Catalunya test.

Bautista will be expected to fight for wins in at least some of the races, if not all of them, however, his list of challengers could be a long one.

Yamaha proved to be quick at the test as Jonathan Rea regained his early pre-season form, while Andrea Locatelli has been very quick in race trim so far in 2024.

Then there’s BMW and Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had it not been for an unofficial lap record from Bulega, would have topped the Catalunya test.

The challenge for BMW and Razgatlioglu is to have race-winning pace over the course of both long distance races, but if they can avoid severe tyre wear, then Razgatlioglu will be in the mix too.

Alex Lowes and Kawasaki can’t be ruled out either, although the two-day test in Barcelona was somewhat of a struggle for the series leader.

For Bautista, he appears to have gained a certain level of confidence with the new ballast aboard his Panigale V4 R.

Something that was a struggle particularly in corners, Bautista has found more potential as a result of getting more comfortable with the adjustments.