PORTUGUESE ROUND | SATURDAY
March 28, 2026
Sunday at Portimão opens with a warm-up affected by stronger wind and different temperatures compared to the previous day. Álvaro Bautista finished is twelfth in 1:41.557 (+1.341).
The sprint race, run over 10 laps, sees Alvaro start from eleventh position. Bautista delivers a comeback race. After an unremarkable start, he finds himself at the back, but lap after lap the Spaniard recovers positions, overtaking several rivals and climbing up to ninth at the finish.
Race 2, over a distance of 20 laps. When the lights go out, rider #19 drops to eleventh and remains in the midfield. Bautista continues his comeback, climbing up to eighth and then seventh. For the Spaniard however, the race ends early. On lap nine, Bautista crashes at Turn 5, forcing him to retire definitively.
#THERECONQUEST
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“Today we continued working on the bike setup, as yesterday in Race 1 I didn’t feel comfortable with the changes made in the morning. We improved the feeling and the early race pace, but we are still a bit far from our best performance and we are on the limit in several phases of the race. However, we collected important data. Unfortunately, in Race 2, I had a crash at Turn 5 and that ended my race. I’m sorry for the team, who are working very hard and I really want to thank them for that. We will not give up, we will continue working to find a setup that helps me be competitive and show our full potential.”
