DUTCH ROUND | SUNDAY
April 19, 2026
Sole and favourable temperatures accompanied the Barni Spark Racing Team on Friday at the Balaton circuit, host of the fourth round of the WorldSBK. An intense day focused mainly on setup work and data collection, with the Ducati Panigale V4RS machine on track from FP1 using the harder tyre compound to better understand the behaviour of the bike on the Hungarian circuit.
For Álvaro Bautista, the weekend started with some difficulties. The Spaniard struggled to find the right feeling in the opening session, mainly due to a lack of grip and less-than-positive sensations with the tyres. The team tried several technical solutions during the morning, sacrificing some track time but gathering valuable information for the rest of the weekend. In the afternoon, FP2 allowed them to recover part of the lost work, gradually improving both feeling and pace. Bautista ended the day in seventh position with a time of 1:39.525, continuing to work with the team on solutions to be used in FP3.
The Barni Spark Racing Team will return to track tomorrow for FP3 at 9:40, the final opportunity to fine-tune the package ahead of Superpole at 11:15 and Race 1 at 15:30.
#THERECONQUEST
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“Today was a difficult day. This morning, in FP1, I struggled to find the right feeling and had some strange sensations, especially with the tyres. We tried several solutions on the bike and that cost us some track time. In FP2 we managed to improve the feeling slightly, even if we are still not at the Assen level. We are still working in the right direction. For us, FP2 was almost like a second FP1, useful to better understand the bike and collect data. We have some ideas for FP3 to try and improve our pace further.”
