PORTUGUESE ROUND | FRIDAY
March 27, 2026
Saturday’s action got underway with a slightly delayed FP3, but the session was immediately intense. Bautista initially moved up to third place with a time of 1:40.569 (+0.469). Alvaro improved to fifth with a 1:39.887, but his lap was later cancelled due to track limits. The session continued Bautista finished seventh with a 1:40.006 (+0.820).
In Superpole, Alvaro struggled to put together a perfect lap and finished eleventh with a 1:39.477 (+0.840).
Race 1 started with Bautista who climbed up to eighth in the early stages. The race took a turn on lap five when Bautista made a mistake at Turn 1, ran wide and lost several positions, dropping outside the top ten. From that moment on, the Spanish rider was forced into recovery rides. Alvaro fought back to finish ninth, crossing the line very close to Bassani.
There is now a significant amount of data to analyse ahead of Sunday’s two races. The Superpole Race will start at 12:10 (Italian time), followed by Race 2 at 16:30.
#THERECONQUEST
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“This morning we made an important change to the bike compared to yesterday. I felt some improvement in the first session, but in the afternoon, with higher temperatures, it was more difficult to find the right feeling, especially in the opening laps. At the moment, we are still working to find a solid base setup. The positive aspect is that we managed to finish the race despite the difficulties. From mid-race onwards, our pace was not particularly competitive. Our goal was to fight for the top five, and today’s result does not reflect our potential, we can do more. We gathered a lot of data and we hope it will help us take a step forward tomorrow.”
