Alvaro Bautista left with “strange” feeling after losing Estoril WorldSBK podium

Alvaro Bautista hasn’t stood on the WorldSBK podium since February, but he was on course for an unlikely top-three in Estoril Race 2 before he crashed with five laps to go.

Two-time WorldSBK champion Bautista is potentially about to enter his final weekend as a full-time racer at world championship level, 24 years after making his debut in the 125cc World Championship.

The Spaniard has amassed 129 podiums in his almost eight seasons in the production derivative series since moving from MotoGP, but in 2026 he has achieved only one, that coming in the wet Race 2 at Phillip Island in February.

The drought could’ve been ended at Estoril in Race 2 when Bautista was able to pass Alberto Surra for third place as the race approached its final quarter.

But in the end it was Surra who took the podium after Bautista crashed at turn one in the closing laps.

The Barni Ducati rider explained after the race that he was left with a “strange feeling” from the crash, and that it was only after the halfway point of the race that he’d been able to begin attacking.

“Well, I have a strange feeling, like a [bittersweet] feeling,” Alvaro Bautista told WorldSBK.com after Race 2 at Estoril.

“I think the weekend overall has been positive for me, for the team, because we did good work.

“In Race 2, starting from the front the life is a bit more easy. 

“I did a good start, but in the first laps, for me, it’s just a surviving question because I cannot push, the bike is just taking me out every corner and I can’t stop the bike, the bike has a lot of inertia. 

“So, in the first five or six laps, for me it’s just to survive – I cannot attack, I cannot do [anything], so it’s a big problem for me. 

“But, in any case, when I passed 12 laps I saw I was fourth, I had Surra in front of me, and I was getting better pace, I caught him, answer fought a little bit for a couple of laps for third place. 

“When I was in front, I thought ‘Okay, now I can put my pace, keep consistent,’ but in turn one I lost the front.”

Bautista explained that he didn’t think he did anything wrong in the crash, and that he was still “proud” of his weekend because he was able to show that he can still fight for podium places.

“I didn’t make anything strange or different from other laps, but I just lost the front,” Bautista said of the crash.

“In any case I think we have to be proud because we saw that our speed is there and we fight always, we never give up, and we will try until the end. 

“For that, I’m happy, because we showed our potential, we showed that we can be competitive, but a bit of a shame that I crashed and we cannot finish the work. 

“But in any case I think everybody can see that we did our best – I did my best and I always fight. Doesn’t matter if it’s fifth or third place, I will fight until the end even with all the problems we have.”

Bautista added: “Believe me, if I feel that I don’t have the speed, or I cannot be competitive, or the performance is down, I stay at home. 

“But believe me that I trust that I can be competitive, I can have good performance, I have the speed, and I never give up, and I always want to show my potential. The day that I don’t feel this, I don’t feel the fire inside me, I will stay at home. 

“When more or less the things are in the right place, we are able to do it, but also in the sport – like in the life – you need sometimes a little bit the luck.”