Bautista secured a record win total this season as he won ten races more than s🍌ix-time WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea managed in both 2018 and 2019. 

The fa🐠ctory Ducati rider was more dominant than ever when it came to defending his title, but that didin’t stop the title fight from going down to the wire♌.

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Razgatlioglu, who was equally impressive at times, despite only winning 6 ra꧒ces throughout the year, pushed Bautista until the season-finale at Jerez.

Although winning the title was never in doubt during his home round, Bautista finished th♓e year amazed by the performances Razgatlioglu delivered.

“My fight for the championship with Toprak this season has been difficult, especially in the second half of the season,” said Bautista when⛎ talking to WorldSBK.com. 

“Toprak was very strong. He never made mistakes. I had a record of victories this season ꦦbut, even with this, he kept the title alive until the last round.&nb൩sp;

“That means his performance was unbelievable. When you fight with him for the championship, you can’t say ‘okay, today I’m second, I get some points’ because he’s always there. For that, I had to do the whole season by atꦕtacking. 

“Doing my best, never relaxing and alw♓ays on the limit. Portimao, especially Race 2, I said to everyb🎉ody that I didn’t want to think about the championship, I just wanted to fight until the end and get the maximum. 

“For me, it was easy just to stay second and not risk anything. It is not ♎my mindset. When you win and your rivals have the talent they have, it’s more important to win like this. I’m so proud of how I managed the🔴 situation and the races.”

Bautista was mistake-free until round seven when he crashed out of Rওace 2 at Imola.&nbs𒊎p;

And although more mistakes followed at Magny-Cours and Aragon, Bautista was strong enough to retain hꦑis title.

Bauti💎sta ad𝓰ded: “From Imola, I learnt a lot. Maybe I had more tension than normal. I don’t know if it was because the weather was too hot or the track conditions. 

“I think I crashed because of that. Iᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ didn’t have a good appreciat🌱ion of the reality and maybe, in that corner, I touched the inside kerb and then I crashed. 

“It was my mistake but fortunately I learnt from it. Aragon was a bit d🐠ifferent from Imola. In that crash, I was too conf❀ident. 

“I had a bit of a gap to second and maybe I was too relaxed. The second one was because I tried to gain two positions in one corner. I could expect✅ that crash because I was over the limit.”