Alvaro Bautista shrugged off the consequences of losing the World Superbike Ch෴ampionship lead for the first time t☂his season after crashing out of the first race at Donington Park, instead revealing he is ‘lucky’ not to have been hurt in his sizeable smash.

The Spaniard was𒉰 running fifth in the wet opener ꦐwhen he lost the rear of the Aruba.it Ducati Panigale V4 R coming around the fast Starkey’s left-hander, the bike gripping sideways to flick him into a high-side before he dropped hard to the track.

Revealing he hit his head hard in the accident, Bautista was more relieved to come away unscathed than worry about the swing in momentum to Jonathan Rea, with his third crash in five races seeing him throw away a 61-point lead into a nine-po🐼int deficit.

“Today I was lucky because the🔜 grass was really hard, I hit very hard the asphalt with my head so I am very lucky,” he said. ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ“This is racing, some days it happens to you, some days it happens to other riders, in the end you just have to keep working and keep positive.

In what has certainly been hi♌s toughest weekend since making his WorldSBK debut, Bautista struggled for pace at Donington Park even before Saturday’s wet conditions addꦕed to his troubles.

Indeed, he said he was surpris෴ed to be going as quickly ✅as he was considering the ‘shit feeling’ he had on the bike.

“The conditions were very tricky, the track was very slippery and this morning in the wet condit�⛎�ions my feeling was really bad.

“It was like I was riding on the ice, no feeling😼. We made some changes for the race, which♑ improved a little bit but not a lot, especially at the beginning.

“I was surprised 💜with my shit feeling with the bike, my lap times weren’t too bad. It is impossible to go fast with this shit feeling!”