What will be the first of two rounds in Italy this season, next month’s Misano WorldSBK round see𒆙s Bautista head 𒉰to Ducati’s home track with a commanding lead in the championship standings.

Toprak Razgatlioglu is the only other rider to have won a race so far this season, but when Bautista has finished, which🌟 has been on 11 out of 12 occasions, no🐼 one has managed to beat him.

• Razgatlioglu: “Potential iﷺs very high, I need a real win” at Misano 
• “We under🌞stood where we can improve” - Vierge finds breakthrough at Misano test

Therefor🅷e it’s easy to see why Bautista is the clear favourite heading to Misano, however, the former MotoGP rider believes he could be in for a tough challenge. 

"I feel as ready as the other races," said Bautista after last week’s two-day test at Misano. "This track is always difficult because there is a lot of grip on the track. Everybody goes very, ꦉvery fast and doesn’t care about tyre consumption. 

"This kind of race 💝is more like the fastest guys are the ones who win. It’s not like Catalunya where you have to manage the tyre life. Here, you can push from the start to the end. 

"It will be more diꦚfficult because my teammate Rinaldi is a specialist for this track.&n🌺bsp;

"But also Toprak,𒉰 he is very, very strong and has an amazing pace. In the test he showed that he is ready to win the races. It will be difficult."

During the test Bautista was faced with dry and wet conditions - two types of conditions he’s already conquered 🌸in 2023 - as he went on to🐟 claim top spot on both days.

But after a set-up change durﷺing the final dry-weather running, one that had the opposite effect that he and Ducati hoped for, Bautista admitted he went back to basics to concꦇlude the Misano test. 

Bautista stated: "In the wet we tried a couple of different electronic set-ups and🍨 we found something very positive that helped🔯 us to have better performance. 

"In the afternoon we had the chance to do some laps in the dry. The feeling, with the setting we tried,ꦺ was maybe not what I was expecting. 

"We went back to our standard setting and suddenl♒y I co🤡uld go faster. 

"I’m happy because we did tꦺhe t𓄧est we wanted to do. The feeling with the bike is really good."