Alvaro Bautista

BALLISTIC BAUTISTA! 

Following on from his phenomenal performance in 2022 when he clinched his first FIM Superbike World Championship crown, Alvaro Bautista – Ducati was once again the rider to beat in 2023 and by retaining his title he became the Italian manufacturer’s first back-to-back champion since Carl Fogarty in 1999. 

To say that the Spaniard has won the championship in style would be a massive understatement – the truth is that this season he has ridden himself into the record books with a series of commanding performances that have made him a very worthy two-time FIM Superbike World Champion. 

The then thirty-eight-year-old’s twelve-round championship campaign got off to the best possible start back in late February when he swept all before him at Phillip Island off the southern coast of Australia and it set the scene for a record-breaking run that would see him attain the status of a two-time FIM Superbike World Champion. 

His fantastic early season form made him virtually unbeatable through the next four rounds as he added a further eleven race wins to his record before he was beaten into second in the Superpole race at Donington Park in Great Britain.  

At one point leading by ninety-eight points, his rivals fought hard through the second half of the season to reduce the deficit, but he held his nerve to secure the title on home soil with victory in the opening race of the final round at Circuito de Jerez at the end of October. 

Bautista’s record in 2023 speaks for itself. Out of thirty-six races he was on the podium thirty-one times with twenty-seven wins, three second places and a solitary third-place finish – truly incredible statistics that carried him to the title with a winning margin of seventy-six points. 

PALMARES 

FIM 125cc World Champion: 2006 
FIM Superbike World Champion: 2022, 2023 

AWESOME ALVARO!

It is safe to say that Alvaro Bautista – Ducati has been a dominant force in the 2022 FIM Superbike World Championship.

In a sport that is as unpredictable as WorldSBK where the slightest lapse in concentration can result in a no-score, the Spaniard’s consistency this season has been nothing short of remarkable and he clinched the crown with one round still remaining.

The thirty-seven-year-old threw down the gauntlet at the opening round on home ground at Aragon in April when he topped pole before running two-one in the points-paying races and he was hardly off the podium for the rest of the year.

Storming rides at Assen, Estoril and Misano followed as he built up a commanding championship lead before, he crashed out in the opening race at Donington Park in the middle of July and then fought back with second in race two.

Just two weeks later he was in command again at the Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic, but after winning the opener at Magny-Cours in early September he fell in race two.

A fortnight later he re-established his dominance with pole position followed by a dazzling double win in Catalunya and then backed up a second-placed finish on the Algarve with victory in race two.

The championship then shifted its focus to South America and Argentina where Bautista claimed both race wins at the end of October in Villicum to ensure that he headed to Indonesia in mid-November with an incredibly healthy points lead.

A second-place finish in race two at the Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit was good enough for the title with Bautista heading to Australia’s Phillip Island for the final round with an unbeatable sixty-six-point lead.

PALMARES

FIM 125cc Grand Prix World Champion: 2006
FIM Superbike World Champion: 2022