A huge opportunity missed: Alvaro Bautista hasn’t been this fast for a long time

Given his dismal season, it’s easy to forget what Alvaro Bautista has achieved in the Superbike World Championship: two titles, 129 podium finishes in 270 races and 63 wins. In the second race at Estoril, he came very close to securing his 130th podium finish.

In the Ducati factory team, Bautista had to make way for Iker Lecuona after the 2025 season, after which he joined the top privateer team, Barni Spark. The veteran got off to a good start to the season with a third-place finish in the second main race at Phillip Island, but he hasn’t managed another podium finish since 22 February. At Assen in April, he finished fourth three times, but since then Álvaro hasn’t come close to the podium.

At Estoril, Bautista showed strong progress over the weekend: after finishing 12th in qualifying, he came ninth, fifth and – almost third – in the races. “That wasn’t even a proper mistake,” said the 41-year-old of his slip-up. “I didn’t feel I was at the limit either; that was more the case in previous laps. It’s a shame – I showed that the pace was there. We fought hard and never gave up – this season has been very tough for us. Everyone only sees the results, but we’ve really had a lot of problems throughout the year. And whenever a chance came my way, I tried to show that I’m still in the running.”

Willkommen in Estoril

Foto: Gold & Goose

Yari Montella

Foto: Gold & Goose

Miguel Oliveira

Foto: Gold & Goose

Alberto Surra

Foto: Gold & Goose

Nicolò Bulega

Foto: Gold & Goose

Lorenzo Baldassarri

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Alex Lowes

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Iker Lecuona

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Nicolò Bulega

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Jake Dixon

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Yari Montella

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Miguel Oliveira

Foto: Gold & Goose

Axel Bassani

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Lorenzo Baldassarri

Foto: Gold & Goose

Álvaro Bautista

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Nicolò Bulega gewinnt beide Läufe in Estoril

Foto: Gold & Goose

Bulega und Lecuona

Foto: Gold & Goose

Lecuona, Bulega, Surra

Foto: Gold & Goose

Sieger Nicolò Bulega

Foto: Gold & Goose

Yari Montella

Foto: Gold & Goose

Willkommen in Estoril

© Gold & Goose

Montella scored twice as many points as Bautista

“That hurt,” said Bautista, describing his emotional state after the crash; physically, he was fine. “I’d rather have a crash like that than finish eighth,” he told SPEEDWEEK.com. “At least I was able to enjoy the race; the bike was performing more or less acceptably. I was able to battle with other riders, which wasn’t the case in other races.”

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It was particularly bitter for the Spaniard: his Barni team-mate Yari Montella, 15 years his junior, has already raced onto the podium 14 times this season and is on the verge of winning the World Championship bronze: Ahead of next weekend’s races at Jerez, he holds a 53-point lead over his closest rival, Alex Lowes (Bimota), with just 62 points still up for grabs. Bautista has not even half the points Montella has to his name and is therefore tenth overall.