2023-04-22 19:03:32
Álvaro Bautista has done it again. Little or nothing has affected the Talavera the penalty he received minutes before starting Race 1; The number 1 number lost Superpole after being penalized by the Race Direction for understanding that he had disturbed other drivers in the closing stages of the session, losing three positions at the start. Finally, The Ducati rider has come back turn after turn until finishing with the victory in Assenahead of Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu.
At the end of the race, Álvaro Bautista admitted that the penalty he received from three positions on the grid on Saturday for bothering other riders has affected him at the time of tackling the race, but he preferred to make a positive reading and keep focused on each turn: “I was a bit pissed off before the race because of the penalty. In any case, the penalty gave me more motivation and more aggressiveness on the starting grid. It helped me not to relax, as I might have done after seeing the pace yesterday and getting pole position. It had been easy, but here nothing is easy and the sanction was like a warning to be attentive and not fight. Today in the end it was positive, but I don’t know if tomorrow it will be the same”.
According to Race Direction, Álvaro upset Garrett Gerloff and Loris Baz on his flying lap as the Superpole session was about to end. The current world champion has stated that could not act otherwise without causing an accidentfor which he has made the decision to shoot on his return to the track to avoid greater evils.
“I was coming out of pit lane and had some drivers behind me,” explains the Ducati. “I saw Bassani close and Gerloff and Baz were going into Turn 1. If I had cut off the gas, I would have risked Bassani touching me. So I opened up the throttle more to get into Turn 2 faster and stay off the line. I did and I don’t think I upset Gerloff and Baz. The one who bothered them was Bassani, who was behind me and did not slow down to stay behind me and set the time. Bassani annoyed them and I don’t think it was correct to sanction me.”
Michael’s teammate Rubén Rinaldi has pointed out that he is upset with the sanction for being ignored by the stewards. According to Bautista, they went to testify knowing that they had already taken the penalty, so they did not value his explanation: “There is nothing I could do. Race management summoned me to listen to my version, but the decision had already been made before listening to me. I was resting before the race when they called me and Serafino (Foti) told me to go talk to him. When I went we reviewed the images and I explained to them, but they had already made the decision and that is what I do not find correct. (…). If I had been alone I could have slowed down, but then the driver behind, who was not expecting it, could have run me over. It seemed like the least risky option at the time.”
Some disagreement as #WorldSBK Superpole heats up ????#NLDWorldSBK ???????? pic.twitter.com/tpCjaHLljZ
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) April 22, 2023
“I enjoyed the race, because today’s conditions were a bit different,” affirmed the Spaniard, who assured that the way of approaching the first race has changed, where he was surprised by the pace that his rivals had: “In the first few laps I tried to understand what the track conditions and the grip were. Then I saw that Jonathan and Toprak had a good rhythm and I did not expect it because in training it had been difficult for them to shoot in 1:34 that they maintained in the first laps”.
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Lastly, the Spanish rider acknowledged that the track conditions were complicated, although he assures that he could have escaped earlier: “Halfway through the race I thought I could push harder. I didn’t know if I could have escaped, but at least I would have pushed them to push the tires and arrive with more consumption at the end of the race. Jonathan managed to stay close to me and with 6 laps to go I saw that the gap between us had increased a couple of tenths and I understood that it was time to give the final push to open the gap. I did it and it works great. I’m really happy”, Bautista concluded.
#testify #decision