Alvaro Bautista directs bullish title message to absent Toprak Razgatlioglu

Alvaro Bautista has warned Toprak Razgatlioglu that he remains 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 sustained last time out.

It means two-time 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 to feel good on the bike, and ride without pain.

“This year is unpredictable, anything can happen.”

Bautista gives injury update

The 39-year-old arrived at Cremona nursing his own injuries.

Bautista fractured a rib at the previous WSBK round but, unlike Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea, has been passed fit in Cremona.

He was sixth-fastest in the second practice session on Friday, which Alex Lowes topped.

“I feel good,” Bautista insisted. “The best way to forget everything is to ride the bike, especially if you have a good feeling.

“The morning was good. I didn’t start aggressively.

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

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

“But from the first to last lap, it 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 feeling I had was due to the muscle than the bone.”

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