Bautista: I was overconfident and have to learn from my mistakes

Alvaro Bautista concedes he’s been overconfident during the last two rounds of the World Superbike championship which has seen him suffer two costly falls and duly damage his points lead.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider holds a slender 16-point advantage over Jonathan Rea at the top of the standings heading to Donington Park for the British round this weekend, having crashed while leading the final race at Misano – a fate he also endured in the final Jerez race at the previous round.

After storming to victory in all of the opening 11 races in the 2019 World Superbike championship, Bautista admits he’s been bullish with his pace and performances and knows he must avoid similar mistakes to defend his points lead.

“I have to learn from my mistakes of the last two rounds, because I think I was a bit overconfident; now we just have to concentrate on the next round,” Bautista said. “Donington Park is a track that I know quite well, but I’ve only raced there on smaller category bikes and never in MotoGP.”

While Bautista’s last visit to Donington Park ended in second place in the 2009 250cc Grand Prix race, Ducati’s knowledge of the British track with the new V4 R Panigale is limited having not tested at the circuit ahead of this weekend.

Ducati will be able to use data from its BSB teams, with Be Wiser Ducati’s Scott Redding claiming a hat-trick of wins on the National layout in May, but will be handicapped given the World Superbike round races on the Grand Prix track layout.

“The next two rounds at Donington, and immediately after at Laguna Seca, should be a bit different and interesting for us because they take place on two tracks where we don’t have any data with the Panigale V4 R,” he said.

“In any case our performance is quite high, so we’ll see if we can achieve the same level reached so far this season.”