Alvaro Bautista “sorry” for Sam Lowes crash in Dutch WorldSBK Race 1

After a crash with Sam Lowes in WorldSBK Race 1 at this weekend’s Dutch Round, Alvaro Bautista has apologised to both Lowes and his Aruba.it Racing Ducati team.

Bautista was trying to get to the front of the leading group when he crashed with Lowes, and the crash happened at the moment he tried to pass the British rider. The Spanish rider lunged down the inside, but lost the front and his crashed bike collected Lowes on the way to the gravel trap.

The two-time World Superbike Champion said he was “angry” for the crash, and took the blame for the incident.

“I’m really angry with myself because I threw a race [away], because the performance was good,” Bautista told WorldSBK.com.

“This morning we tried a big change in the setup but it didn’t like me so for the Superpole we came back. I did a good lap time even with some mistakes, but we were able to go quite fast and have not a bad position for the grid – fifth place was good. Then, with the penalties of Bassani and Toprak [Razgatlioglu] we gained two positions.

“So, the start was [good], then I started to fight with other riders and I think I was faster than the group I was fighting with, but with a lot of overtakes I could not find my space in the group, so I was not patient and I tried to overtake in all the places possible.

“At the end, I crashed. I tried to overtake Sam [Lowes] and I crashed. I mean, it can happen.

“I’m disappointed for him because when I crashed I carried him, but some laps before we were close to touching as well, so it was like a ‘race fight’ so it’s normal.

“I’m sorry for him, sorry for my team because I think today it was possible to fight very easily for second position.

“But this is racing. To fight for something you have to finish the race. But we have to keep the positives: we [had good] performance, I felt good on the bike, so we have to keep this for tomorrow.”

Bautista went to Lowes after the crash when they were both on the service road and waiting to be taken back to the paddock.

“I just said to him ‘sorry’ because I tried to pass him and then I crashed, but this is a normal thing of the race,” he said.

“Also, he told me ‘Sorry for the lap before,’ because we were close and he was very close to touching me. But this is racing, fortunately Sam is a nice guy and I hope to battle with him again tomorrow.”