 At the midway point of the season, Bautista had collected 13 points, and finished 16th in the riders' championship with 31 points.In August, Bautista confirmed he would be departing MotoGP following nine seasons, changing to World Superbike with the factory Ducati team in 2019.Following Jorge Lorenzo pulling out of his third race at Phillip Island in Australia due to injury, Bautista replaced him for Ducati for the Australian Grand Prix weekend before returning to the Ángel Nieto Team for the final 2 Grands Prix of the season.