"I love getting to the Aragón race as the leader of the World Superbike Championship. I think it's something that I owed to my fans, that's why I would be very excited, I would go crazy, if I manage to win all three Motorland races in a circuit that I hope and wish to be filled, which I know is difficult but, I insist, I I would be very excited, "explained Álvaro Bautista (Ducati) to El Periódico de Caralunya before leaving Thailand where, last weekend, he repeated his triplet from Phillip Island (Australia), winning the race on Saturday and Sunday, in addition of the short race of the Sunday morning.
Bautista, in fact, will arrive, in the first week of next April (from 5 to 7), to the Spanish track of Motorland (Alcañiz, Aragón), the first Spanish round of the SBK World Championship (the second will be in Jerez, 7 to June 9), as the outstanding leader of the championship after wielding, both in Australia and Phillip Island, the tremendous power of his Ducati 'Panigale V4 =) and defeating, in the six races, the current four-time world champion of SBK, the Briton Jonharan Rea (Kawasaki), who has been the true emperor of the category for the past four years. Bautista now has 124 points, that is, 26 more than the four-time Rea and 55 more than Alex Lowes.
"I will only say that when Ducati signed me after it was impossible for me to continue competing on the MotoGP grid, the first thing they told me was that they wanted to win the Superbike title and that they would try to put a winning bike in my hands. And they have more than fulfilled, of course, because this 'Panigale' is a street MotoGP, impressive, "acknowledged Bautista, 34, and, these days, the happiest man on earth.
"I go out to have fun. I do not do any strategy I want to win from the first turn and try to escape. My bike is great, but both I and she are new to this championship and it is difficult to get to circuits that I do not know, put it to the point and fight with someone like Rea, who has four consecutive titles and a lot of records in his record, "he said. the pilot of Talavera de la Reina.
Bautista do not want to hear about whether his motorcycle is benefiting from the new regulation, because there are those who think that their engine has 2,000 laps more than the other brands (Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, BMW ...) and, according to Rea himself , "About 20 horses more power than my 'Kawa'". "My bike is legal, Ducati has done an exceptional job, wonderful, very intelligent and I do not intend to enter his van or to change the rules to harm us. I'm not in it, nor is it my thing. "
Taking advantage of the regulation
"When Rea devastated during the last four years, there was no talk of changing. Moreover, where were the other Kawasaki? Why did only Jonhatan win? Dorna, organizer of the SBK World Cup, is not here to penalize whoever wins. And less in the second race of a championship that has 13 citations, "said Gregorio Lavilla, technical manager of the championship, gpone.com.
"I can only say that Ducati, with engineer Gigi Dall'Igna at the helm, has done a masterful job when thinking about and creating the new 'Panigale V4' and that Álvaro (Bautista), whom we have just met, does not stop to give us happiness with his tremendous driving, "said Serafino Foti, head of the Ducati Aruba.It Racing team. "Bautista has shot in Thailand as fast as he did the Ducati GP17 MotoGP, which means that our bike is, yes, great."