The Portimao tests have already left us a taste of what will be the battle between Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu, fighting for the top during the time attack. But attention has not been focused only on the two 2021 title contenders who seem to be ready to fight for the world championship again this year: Alvaro Bautista and Ducati already show themselves to be formidable candidates for the championship. The Spaniard got back on the Panigale V4R after two years and immediately seemed at ease, placing himself behind the first two, not too far away.
The factory team’s four-cylinder has found the rider who three years ago led it to dominate the world championship, but this time Bautista gets on the Ducati with greater awareness and experience. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati standard bearer, in fact, at the end of the two days of testing, is third in the time standings and pays a reduced gap from Rea and Razgatlioglu, even though it was only his second real test.
Back to the future: Bautista is already scary on the Ducati
He did not dominate as we had seen him do on his Superbike debut in 2019, but Alvaro Bautista followed suit with the two most favorites, also bringing attention to himself in terms of the title. Of course, it is still too early to set goals, but the Spaniard knows he is more solid than three years ago: “It is still too early to talk about this season’s goals. Surely there are still a lot of tests before the inaugural round and I’m happy with how things are going because I’m feeling very good with the bike, I enjoy it and honestly you notice a lot of the experience I have acquired in the category, I know the tires better. Three years ago I was going fast, but I didn’t understand why. Now, however, I am more confident and have everything under control. I’m happy because on my return to Ducati I feel much better than I expected ”.
Overall, therefore, Bautista can be considered more than satisfied with his start of 2022. Only a small error “stained” his day in some way, but it did not affect the work program, which also included the test with the new Pirelli SCQ tire: “It was a positive test, because I felt better and better on the bike and I feel it more and more mine. In the morning of the second day I made a mistake when braking on Turn 8 going to the curb and I crashed. I lost the front, but it was my mistake, which fortunately had no consequences. By removing this, we can be happy with the tests, because we have grown up ”.
“We tried the new Pirelli compound, but my best lap and best pace came with the standard SCX tire. Perhaps this is because the SCQ has not yet expressed it to the maximum, we had two tires and I only used one, but perhaps I could not make the most of it, maybe I would have improved. But it is good because we have given information to Pirelli in view of the season ”.
Rinaldi, an uphill start
Michael Ruben Rinaldi puts the two days of testing in Portimao on file with satisfaction, but with the idea of being able to do more in the next releases. The rider from Romagna remained longer than his teammate both in the first and second day of testing. On Tuesday he only dedicated himself to recovering feeling, while on the last day he worked on some components, but without being able to do the time attack due to a back pain that stopped him in the afternoon.
“They were two days of demanding tests – he says – but it’s always nice to get back on the bike after a long time, in my case after the crash in Indonesia. During the first day we rode without doing big tests and I was happy with the work done, I just needed to regain some feeling with the bike. We weren’t very fast, but I had lapped well and with the racing tire I had done better than I had ever done here in Portimao. On the second day, however, we had to try a few things, but we concentrated on the work without looking for the time. I haven’t even tried the qualifying tire, not even the new one that Pirelli brought, unlike all the riders in front of me. We return home with a lot of data, it’s a pity that the second half of the day I wasn’t able to run as I wanted, but I’m still quite satisfied with how we started this 2022 ”.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Aruba.It Racing – Ducati
Photo by: Aruba.it Racing
#SBK #Ducati #Portimao #tests #show #enormous #potential