Alvaro Bautista completes first Ducati WorldSBK laps since 2019

Alvaro Bautista has completed his first Ducati laps since 2019 during a private test at Jerez in Spain.

The Spaniard, taking over from BMW-bound Scott Redding after spending the past two seasons at Honda, took to the track just a few days after the 2021 season finale at Mandalika, Indonesia.

Having spent the opening afternoon working on ergonomics and familiarizing himself with the Panigale V4R, Bautista then worked intensively on bike set-up during day two, completing 96 laps with a best time of 1m 39.119s.

It's not known if that was set during a low fuel/new soft tyres time attack, but it's very close to Bautista's own official race lap record of 1m 39.004s from 2019, with the WorldSBK pole record a 1m 38.247s set by Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea in the same season.

Bautista claimed 16 wins and 24 podiums during a stunning rookie 2019 WorldSBK campaign, but was still caught and passed by Rea in the title fight. The triple MotoGP podium finisher hasn’t taken a victory since that season, with a best of third place and just ninth in the championship, during his time at Honda.

Team-mate Michael Ruben Rinaldi was forced to miss the Jerez  test due to the crash sustained on the final lap of Race 2 at Sunday's wet Indonesian round.