{"id":502943,"date":"2026-02-25T10:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T10:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502943\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T10:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T10:41:13","slug":"rain-made-australian-worldsbk-race-2-like-a-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502943\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain made Australian WorldSBK Race 2 \u201clike a lottery\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Alvaro Bautista was one of the winners of a WorldSBK \u201clottery\u201d in Race 2 at Phillip Island, taking third place in the wet.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bautista started the race seventh after a decent ride from 12th in the Superpole Race earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But wet weather for Race 2 complicated things, with the spray from riders in front hampering visibility, something also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/news\/1090309\/1\/bmw-rider-survival-mode-during-scary-australian-worldsbk-race-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">noted by both BMW riders after the race<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIn Race 2, on wet, it was like a lottery,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/995293\/alvaro-bautista\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alvaro Bautista<\/a> told WorldSBK.com after Race 2.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI tried to understand how was the conditions, to get the feeling with the bike.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cFor sure the first few laps I struggled a lot because I had some riders in front of me and in many places I could not see anything for the spray from the other bikes, so it was a bit tricky.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThen, when the race passed some laps, I started to feel a bit better, I could see some references and I could put my pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAt the end, I tried to just survive the race, tried to get the feeling, and tried to not force more. I\u2019m happy because I never felt dangerous or risking more than needed, so I\u2019m happy because finishing in third place was good to end the weekend. We keep working to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bautista added that it was \u201cspecial\u201d to take his first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Superbike<\/a> podium with Barni at Phillip Island after a difficult preseason that was affected heavily by bad weather, and then a crash in Race 1 when he clicked one gear too many going into turn 11.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s always special because this season is not going easy,\u201d said Bautista.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe didn\u2019t make tests, and in a completely new project for me: new team, new faces, new bike \u2013 everything new \u2013 it\u2019s not easy to arrive in this track and start working in this track that is quite special.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cSo, we tried to work on the bike, also I tried to work on myself to get the rhythm, the pace, the feeling with the bike.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s true that it\u2019s not always easy, but I think we were improving every time we go out on the track, so this is positive. It\u2019s always a bit pride for my mechanics after my [Race 1] mistake.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s better to end on the podium than not, no?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alvaro Bautista was one of the winners of a WorldSBK \u201clottery\u201d in Race 2 at Phillip Island, taking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8074,64,63,6908,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-502943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-alvaro-bautista","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barni-spark-racing-team","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}