Alvaro Bautista on Nicolo Bulega's pace: "It’s not, at the moment, a problem…"
Alvaro Bautista questioned about the form🎃 of Nicolo Bulega
Alvaro Bautista insists the form of his✨ teammate Nicolo Bulega isn't an issue "at 🧜the moment".
Bulega topped the timesheets of Friday Practice in Catalunya, at the sec⭕ond round of the 2024 World Superbikes season, ahead of teammate and champion Bautista.
Bautista finds himself in the unusu🔥al position ꧑of being behind a teammate.
"Until now Iไ could not ride the package as I wanted. It’s difficult," he said on Friday🔴.
"Even if my teammate was slower than me, I was n🔜ot happy because of [my struggles].
"I am happy because it means the bike works well and he is pushing. The level is th♔ere. We have to ride at least at this level.
"I’m happy to have him with me in the team.
"It’s not a problem. It’s an advantage.
"It’s not, at the moment, a problem…"
Bautista ende♈d dayﷺ-one of the Catalunya WorldSBK round in second after rediscovering his form aboard the Panigale V4 R.
♔Bautista said: “Today has been a really positive day for me because, especially in the morning, my൩ feeling with the bike was terrible.
“It was similar to the test a𓄧nd basically, similar to the other times I have 𒀰ridden the bike this season.
“Me and my team didn't understand why because the ♋bike is the same as last year, just a bit heavier. It’s impossible that the bike changes its behaviour just because of the weight.
“We tried to givꦜe my best feeling to the engineers to💖 explain what I need and what I want to ride the bike.
“Seems like they understand more or less and they made a change with the 🌊set-up of the💦 bike. It was like ‘woah’.
“It was like night and day so I felt much better in the afternoon. It helped me to ride as I wanted so I’m re💞ally happy.
“I think it has been the best feeling I have had with this bike this season. Now we have to keep going in this dꦕirection. Tomorrow I hope to keep this feeling and step-by-step improve my feeling.”
While his m൩ain focus was improving his feeling with the Panigale V4 R, Bautista put together two long simulations on different tyres.
And the results were promi�🐭�sing as he didn’t feel a considerable drop off with either, including Pirelli’s new rear tyre for this weekend.
“This morning and in the test it didn't work for me,” began Bautista. “In the afternoon both tyres worked for me so it depends on t𓆉he set-up.
“When yo💧u are riding the bike as you want, you can force the tyre less. In the afternoon I tried the SCX💖 and the new 900 and I didn’t feel a real big difference ein the performanc elevel.
“I did almost the same amount of laps with both tyres and the drop was not that big. For me, I didn’t focus on the tyre. I was focused on the bike and myself🍒 to get a good feeling.”
