Alvaro Bautista on Scott Redding crash: ”You need to respect your factory teammate”

While WorldSBK Race 1 at this weekend’s Portuguese Round in Portimao was characterised by a race-long battle between Toprak Razgatlioglu and Nicolo Bulega, it was Scott Redding and Alvaro Bautista who produced the race’s main flash point.

The two made contact and crashed at turn four in an opening lap incident. After the race, Bautista – who came into the weekend 26 points adrift of Nicolo Bulega in second in the World Superbike riders' standings, but after Race 1 is now 46 points behind in sixth – made his feelings on the incident clear, saying that it was Redding’s fault, evidenced by the British rider’s attempt to apologise to him in the immediate aftermath.

“Scott [Redding] hit me,” Bautista said in his media debrief, as reported by WorldSBK.com.

“I don’t want to speak to him, I’m not the person who wants to speak with him.

“I just received the impact. He was inside but behind. I don’t know if he crashed and touched me, or he touched me and we crashed. When we were in the corner, I just received an impact and crashed.

“When you crash and you are not guilty, and you think the other rider is guilty, then maybe you [are angry].

“He asked me: ‘Are you okay?’

“If he is not guilty, he would have come to me [being angry] but he was [apologetic]. That’s all. That is the problem, the f*cking problem.”

Bautista added that he felt Redding, a fellow Ducati rider in 2025, needs to have “respect” for his brand-mates, and indicated that he felt the British rider lacked that, at least towards Bautista himself.

“As I’m an official rider, at least you need to respect your factory teammate,” Bautista said.

“And don’t f*ck with me all the time during all these past years.

“Then you have the same bike as me and, even with that, you are still pushing there, and it’s not enough? And you push me out, it looks like it’s the only way to do things.

“That is the problem. I’m the factory rider and he has to be very careful.

“With all the riders, especially with the ones from the same manufacturer, especially with the riders that are factory riders from the same manufacturer. That is the problem.”

Redding: “He said I took him out, which is strange…”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Redding had a different view of the incident, which he felt he didn’t have to take the blame for and which he described as a “racing incident”.

Explaining the incident from his perspective, Redding told WorldSBK.com: “It was a shame. I got off to a really good start, I think I got up to ninth, my plan was to try to finish top-eight or top-six.

“I got a good start, which was the goal, and I made those positions, then I went into turn four, for me everything was settled.

“I needed to pass Remy [Gardner] into turn five, and, as I was making that plan in my head, I felt a push on the left side of the body, then the rear came around and I crashed.

“I looked in the gravel and Alvaro [Bautista] was there, and he had crashed before me.

“Then I wanted to go speak with him, but I couldn’t get close to him because he was always going. So, I really wasn’t sure.”

Redding said that he’s been able to watch Bautista’s on-board camera, which was also shown on the TV broadcast although the forward-facing angle from the Spanish rider’s bike meant Redding was never visible.

“Just before I came here, I was watching it back from the on-board from Alvaro and, going into turn three, I was in front of him, and I was actually in front of Gardner, but I knew he would have a better exit than me, so I stayed a bit outside,” Redding explained.

“I was in the wheel of Gardner, I went into turn four, everything was okay, then all the sudden there was the drama.

“I heard he was saying I took him out which is quite strange because I didn’t feel that was in any way what happened.

“I wasn’t mad after the crash that I took him out or he took me out. It was a racing incident and I want to know what happened.

“From his on-board, the only thing I can think is that he should have seen me, because I was in front of him in turn three. If you’re exiting turn three going to turn four and you’re looking, you would see me on the left.

“He was behind me, so what was I to do, look right and then go?”

Redding admitted that his relationship with Bautista isn’t the best, but reinforced that he was not trying to take him out.

“We don’t have the best of relationships, but I don’t plan to take any rider out, I’m sure it’s the same for him,” he said.

“I can’t even say I’m sorry because I didn’t do anything, it was nothing.

“I would like to see with Race Direction if there is another camera of what happened, but from his on-board I was in front of him until turn four. It was unfortunate for both of us.”