Alvaro Bautista took an unlikely second place in WorldSBK R🌳ace 1 at Magny-Cours, having🥀 qualified down in 17th.

Bautista’s starting position mea🌊nt his race was complicated from the beginning, and the similarity in conditions between Superpole and Race 1 meant a step forward was needed for Bautista to progress.

“Well it was a big challenge starting in 17th,” he told WorldSBK.com after the race. “I didn’t have a good feeling in the wet in the Superpole and I don’t know ♎why.

“We had to be very careful in some areas in t𒆙he race, like in the final chicane where we saw a big crash on the first lap. I nearly crashed there, too, but I was lucky.”

One of the critical parts of the ra💙ce was deciding when to pit to change to wet tyres. Bautista decided to change as soon as he saw the rai𝐆n was falling.

“When I saw the first drop of rain I thought ‘ok you have to enꦑter’, because it was dark and the rain was coming so I was the first one to go in,” Bautista explained.

“I think it was the right choice. Then the feeling𒀰 was not too bad and I was able to push harder than I had in Superpole, I saw my lap time and it🧔 was not too bad.

“After that I just tried to survive in the end.”

Considering his sﷺtarting position, Bautista was pleased with his end result of second.

“At the end I’m very happy with second position after starꦚting from 17th, in a flag-to-flag, racing with wet tyres and wet condit🃏ions with a dry set-up,” he said.

“I’m really, really happy. Sincerely I was surprised with the feeling and the lap time, it was a good sur💙prise for me. I was able 🉐to push and have some confidence.”

The WorldSBK format means that Bautista will have a chance to improve his grid position in Race 2 in Sunday morning’s 🎀Superpole Race, when he will once again ▨start 17th.

“We’ll see with the weather, it seems like it will be good, at least dry,” Bautista said. “In the Superpole Race, starting fro🍸m the back in the dry it will be very difficult, more difficult than in the wet.

“I’ll try to get the best start possible, gain as many positions as possible and try to🐈 get a better position on the grid for Race 2.”