Assen WorldSBK: Alvaro Bautista: ‘I don't agree with the penalty, was a warning to not be relaxed’

After taking pole ahead of Rea, the reigning WorldSBK champion was demoted to fourth after he was deemed to be riding🎃 too slowly after exiting pit lane.
Bautista was not the only rider who rolled off and subsequently got 🔯hit with a grid penalty, as fellow Ducati rider Axel Bassani was also penalised.
- Assen World Sꦗuperbike Race (1) Results: Bautista in a class of his own
- Assen World Superbik🔥e Superpole Results: Bautista gets the better of Rea
Like Bautista, Bassani also recovered to finish in a s𝓰trong P5, although that could have been fourth had he come out on top of his late-race♊ battle with Andrea Locatelli.
But while Bautista was victorious for the sixth time in seven races this season, he remained angered by the penalty: "I didn’t like the penalty because I’m not agree with the decision. But in any case, I took the pen🎉alty in a positive way.
"It gave me more energy because after practice and polꦐe position I was too relaxed. Maybe everything seemed easy. The penalty was 🐼a warning to say ‘you have to push’. It helped me to not relax."
Bauti🎉sta eventually won the race by over t📖hree seconds in what was another dominant showing.
However, the factory Ducati rider said♊ Rea’s pace mid-race was a s♓urprise and that he didn’t expect such a challenge to take place for as long as it did.
Bautista said: "Today was not as easy as people might think after yesterday’s practice. Firstly, with the penalty w🔯e started from the second row and it was important not to lose positions at the start and not be in the group and taking some risks with other riders.
"I can make a good start and could be in third position. I fought a littl🦋e bit with Lowes and then when I was behind Toprak and Jonathan I was watching the track conditions because today it was a bit different from yesterday.
"I had to understand how much I could push with this temperature. After a few laps I could understand the track and I started to feel l♚ike I could push harder than at the beginning.
"[When] I got the lead I increased the pace by two tenths, something like that. Jonathan was there and I was surprised because in the practice he didn’t make that pace, but in the race he can stay with me a bit.꧟&🅠nbsp;
"In the end, my target🐭 was to push the tyre and try to arrive at the end with less tyre. With five or six laps to go I saw the gap was increasing a little bit so I pushed a bit more to get more advantage. I’m so happy to win again."