Alvaro Bautista rued his WorldSBK pre-season testing endeavours at Jerez and Portimao as “poor” due to restricted track time and suffering a highside crash.
The entire WorldSBK paddock was a victim of bad weather at Jerez and Portimao, with rain impeding proceedings.
The two-time champion secured third place in the final classification charts at Portimao but admitted he doesn’t have full confidence with this year’s Ducati Panigale V4.
Bautista’s lap time of 1.43.061s secured him as the lead Ducati rider but finished the session nearly a second behind Bimota’s Alex Lowes and BMW’s Toprak Razgatlioglu.
“It’s been very short and poor because we didn’t spend time on track with good conditions,” he said.
“At Jerez, we had one day with strong wind that was difficult for the first day after three months. The confidence with the bike wasn’t the best. The second day was raining, so we got no laps on track.
“Here at Portimao, it was basically the same. The first day was wet in the morning and in the afternoon the track had some wet patches and stronger wind than Jerez; so not the best conditions to see something. [On the second day], with the rain again.
“We’ve not had a good pre-season, the same as everybody. I hope to use the two-day test before the race in Australia better and start to get some confidence.
“We made some tests with the bike, but we didn’t spend a lot of time in any one of the setups, so I don’t have good confidence with the bike, so I hope to build that in Australia and try to prepare well for the weekend.
Alvaro Bautista explains his Portimao highside in detail
Bautista’s testing woes took another hit when he suffered a highside at Turn 9 around the Algarve circuit.
The 40-year-old suggested he avoided major injury and is fortunate it wasn’t worse due to the interchangeable conditions.
The final pre-season test at Phillip Island looms before the season opener at the same venue a week later.
“I tried to start an exit on the wet,” he explained to WorldSBK.com.
“The track was slippery and entering into turn nine I lost the rear without any warning. I had a big highside because that corner is quite fast.
“I have a big impact against the ground, with my left arm and hand. I think nothing is broken but, for sure, the hand is peeling a bit.
“In any case, I was lucky.
“We have two weeks to recover but, basically, I could do a couple of laps after the crash to check my position on the bike.
“I felt pain but the normal pain after a big crash like that. I hope to be without any problem for Phillip Island.”
