Alvaro Bautista,
Ana Carrasco
Square Off
T
he opening test for the 2023
WorldSBK season had a
sidenote when Ana Carrasco and
World Champion Alvaro Bautista
went at it verbally after an alter-
cation on track.
Carrasco was riding a Yamaha
YZF-R6 on track at the same
time as Bautista on his factory
Ducati Panigale V4 R, where he
said, "I had Ana Carrasco about
half a straight length in front of
me, but I got closer to her much
too quickly in the braking zone.
I had to straighten the bike,
came on the dirty outside of the
corner and
went off track.
Ana should
ride with the
amateurs, at
the moment
she is way too
slow to ride
with the superbike and supers-
port guys. It's not very safe."
Carrasco countered, saying,
"World champion, I saw your board
at the finish line and I knew you
were coming. Between T1 and T2, I
turned to see when you were going
to pass and saw you fall... So don't
swindle. You say that with the ama-
teur because I'm a woman?"
No doubt this argument will
roll on further as Carrasco
switches her attention back to
the Moto3 World Championship
she is contesting with the BOE
Motorsports team.
CN
VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P33
The gloves are
off between
Spanish stars
Ana Carrasco
(pictured) and
Alvaro Bautista.
Pedrosa To Wildcard At Jerez
R
ed Bull KTM has announced
Dani Pedrosa will make his
first race appearance since the
2021 Styrian MotoGP when he
takes up a wildcard offer from
KTM for the 2023 Spanish Mo-
toGP.
The diminutive Spaniard
stopped racing full-time in MotoGP
at the end of the 2018 season.
"It's fantastic news that Dani
wants to refresh himself with
MotoGP this season and Jerez
makes good sense as it's a
popular place for us to test and,
also, he knows the place very
well," said KTM Team Manager
Francesco Guidotti.
KTM Motorsports Director,
Pit Beirer, said, "Of course we
are more than happy because
you have limited tire quantities
for testing, the track is different,
you have different rubber on
the track, so the perfect test is,
of course, a race, so if you can
combine the race, Dani and our
test team, together with the oth-
er boys and you work on future
development parts, it's super
good and super important. Read-
ing between the lines, he would
not do a wildcard if he thought
the bike wasn't competitive so I
hope he gives us the right signal
for that."
CN
Hopefully Dani
Pedrosa's wildcard
goes better than the
last time he raced in
Styria in 2021.
