PORTUGUESE ROUND | SUNDAY
March 29, 2026
A working Friday for the Bergamo-based team at the Assen circuit, at the end of two free practice sessions marked by very close gaps, with the top ten riders covered by less than one second.
In FP1, Álvaro Bautista ended seventh in 1:34.738, 0.786 from the benchmark. During the session, the rider worked on different solutions; Alvaro started a setup development path based on data analysis from Portimão.
In the afternoon FP2 session, Bautista further improved his reference time, setting a 1:34.250 lap and finishing eighth, 0.563 from the top.
The afternoon session was heavily focused on race work. Alvaro after finding better feeling already in the morning thanks to the changes introduced, continued his work showing competitive pace and completing an extended run, longer than race distance, on the same tyre set.
Overall, the changes introduced throughout the day improved bike handling and feeling, especially on used tyres. Setup work remained consistent across both sessions, with no focus on outright lap time, but rather on consistency and race preparation.
In such a tightly packed field, details will make the difference. Next step: Superpole and Race 1 tomorrow.
#THERECONQUEST
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“After the Portimão weekend, we reviewed some data and decided to start Friday morning with a few changes to improve the feeling. Right from the beginning I felt better, and we made a few small adjustments during the session. Then, thanks to the data and feedback, we made another step forward, and I immediately felt good with it in FP2. We had an issue with the rear brake, so I had to stop earlier than expected. Once it was fixed, I went back out on track. There, I realized the bike allowed me to ride better compared to previous races, so I decided to stay out. The pace wasn’t bad: we completed more laps than race distance on the same set of tyres. The feeling is positive, we have more data and references, and hopefully tomorrow we can take another step forward.“
