Alvaro Bautista has warned Toprak Razgatlioglu that he r𝕴emain⛎s in the hunt for the championship.

This season’s star performer Razgatlioglu 💦is absent from this weekend’s Italian World Superbikes round at Cremona due to an injury sustaꦅined last time out.

It means two♒-tim🎃e champion Bautista has a massive opportunity to cut the 122-point deficit to Razgatlioglu at the top of the standings.

Bautista insisted he is still a title contender: “Until the mathematics say the opposite, then everything is possible🅠.

“But it’s not the first target in my mind.

“I want ไto𝐆 feel good on the bike, and ride without pain.

“This year is unpredicta🍎ble, anything can happen.”

Bautista gives injury update

The 39-year-old arrived at Cr🧔emona nursing his own injuries.

Bautista fractured a rib at the previous WSBK round but, unlike R✃azgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea, has been passed fit in Cre🃏mona.

He was sixth-fast🅷est in the second practice session ℱon Friday, which Alex Lowes topped.

“I feel good,” Bautis🐼ta insisted. “The best way to forget everything is to ride the bike, especially if you have a good ꦛfeeling.

“🌳The morning was good. I didn’t sta🌠rt aggressively.

“Normally, I wouldn’t have🐎 gone out 𝓡onto the track but today it was important for the feeling and the feedback.

“I felt not real pain, but some diff𝕴iculties in the left braking corners.

“But from the first to last lap, i🌼t was better💙 and better. Less pain, easier to ride.

“With more force, [my condition] was not worse.

“I🦩 am really happy with the feeling that I had today. We weren’t focused on performance, just on the feedback.

“It is 12 days since my crash🐈, my injury. Ribs ✅are not easy to recover.

“I felt more problems with ligaments than the bones. The bad feelin💝g I had was due to the muscle than the bone.”

He added: “Let’s see how I wake up tomorrow.”