Google News Alvaro Bautista after winning the title: Many people trusted in me
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Alvaro Bautista was delighted after winning the title. He expressed his gratitude to the team for believing in him when no one else did. "I'm so happy, because after two difficult years, many people trusted in me and I had the chance to come back to Ducati," said Bautista, as quoted by motorsport.com "They gave me the chance to do it again.
I have a lot of experience from the past, I tried to be the best rider possible, to not make mistakes, and I think our performance has been really high. "Also because I think sincerely we had the best performance ever from Toprak and Jonathan, they performed at a really high level in all the races, and I was lucky I made less mistakes than them.
In the end the consistency was important. "I feel like I improved as a rider and I can beat these two guys, a six-time world champion and one-time champion. We are breaking records at all the tracks, which means the level is amazingly high, and we can win even with his amazing level."
Alvaro Bautista and the pressure
He also revealed when he started to feel the pressure.
"Sincerely I thought about the championship [for the first time] on the starting grid on Race 2. I started to feel pressure, feel nervous, because it was the first time it was really in my hands," said the 37-year-old. "Before it depended on Toprak's results, but in Race 2 it depended only on mine.
I knew if I could arrive on the podium, it was enough. "I tried to be focused, and when I was behind the other riders I could be focused. But when I led for a couple of laps I started to think too much, I did some strange lines, so I decided to let Toprak past.
And I knew if I lost [second] position to Jonathan it was still enough." Bautista believes that ihe will have a great impact on the popularity of this sport in Spain. "This championship is not very popular or very strong in Spain, I knew very well when Carlos won the title," he said.
"Many people say, 'Superbike is a kind of second [division] category', and sincerely I had the same opinion. When you are in MotoGP, you don't have your eyes on anything else. "Now I hope with this championship many people will follow.
I think the level is not lower than MotoGP - Jonathan and Toprak are amazing riders and they have the level to be at the top in MotoGP."