Wind, cold affects Alvaro Bautista at Assen, setup changes “didn’t work”

Alvaro Bautista says he was affected by colder, windier conditions in WorldSBK Race 2 at Assen compared to Race 1.

14 Apr 2025

Alvaro Bautista, 2025 Dutch WorldSBK, podium. Credit: Gold and Goose.
© Gold & Goose

Two-time World Superbike Champion Alvaro Bautista made a “positive” summary of his Sunday at the Dutch WorldSBK, despite being affected by cooler temperatures and higher winds in Race 2 compared to Saturday’s Race 1.

Sunday began wet at Assen, and the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider was able to finish third behind Toprak Razgatlioglu and Sam Lowes. In Race 2, he looked set for third place again, but a late retirement for Nicolo Bulega promoted him to second.

“Overall it has been a positive Sunday for us because in the Superpole Race I was able to manage the situation and understand how the track conditions were,” Bautista said.

“We were quite good to manage it and finishing in third position was really good, especially after yesterday’s crash – today it was important to finish the races.

“In Race 2, the conditions were a bit different from [Saturday]: it was much cooler and much more windy, so it wasn’t easy.

“Fortunately I did a good start, so I took the lead, but suddenly I felt not the same confidence as [Saturday] in dry conditions and I just tried to survive, I tried to not make mistakes, I tried to end the race as [well] as possible.”

Bautista admitted that his second place in Race 2 was slightly artificial, having benefitted from Bulega’s retirement when the Italian was leading, and said that some setup changes made before Race 2 “didn’t work”.

“To be realistic, today we were third because Nicolo [Bulega] had a technical problem but he was faster than everybody,” Bautista said.

“Then, Locatelli did an amazing job, an amazing race, and his pace was really good, and for me I didn’t have the confidence with the bike so today I didn’t feel that I can push.

“It’s true that also we tried some small changes on the setup to try to use them in this condition with more cold and more wind, but it didn’t work.

“So, I’m happy because at the end at least we can end both races, in very different [conditions]. I hope to keep this tendency for the next races and try to not miss more the Saturday race.”