Bautista teases more to come after rapid Friday turn

Alvaro Bautista says he is convinced ‘fine-tuning’ is all it will take for him to find more speed heading into qualifying for round six of the World Superbike Championship at Jerez, Spain.

The local rider was back to his best during FP2 with a quickest time of the day courtesy of a 1m 39.428secs lap, putting the Aruba.it Ducati rider a comfortable two tenths clear of the opposition.

A positive end to a day that started more auspiciously when he suffered excessive tyre wear, Bautista is confident there is more to come from the Panigale on his home soil after leavig it late in FP2 to show his hand.

“Today it was a very positive day, even though in the morning session we had a few problems with excessive tyre wear, probably because of the track conditions after the rain that fell overnight. In the afternoon therefore the work focused on this aspect in particular.

“I really liked one of the new rear tyre solutions for its durability and consistency even though we used it over a distance that was longer than that of the race, at the same time also improving the feeling with the front over this morning.

“Tomorrow we’ll focus more on fine-tuning the chassis because I’m convinced we can make a further improvement and as a result another step forward."