Álvaro Bautista Arce (born 21 November 1984) is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and former 125cc World Champion. He currently competes in the MotoGP class of the Grand Prix Motorcycle World Championship. Bautista competed for the Suzuki team in his first two years since moving into the class in 2010. He moved to the Honda-equipped Gresini Racing team starting in the 2012 season and continued with the team to race Aprilia machinery when the factory returned to MotoGP racing for the 2015 season. Bautista will compete on Ducati with the Aspar MotoGP Team in 2017.

Born in Talavera de la Reina, Castile-La Mancha, Bautista rode a motorcycle for the first time at three years of age. His father owned a motorcycle repair shop and built his first bike from scratch; Bautista competed in his first race five years later. In only his second season he finished runner-up in the Madrid Minimoto Championship and then went on to win the championship three years in a row. In 1997 he simultaneously raced in the 50cc Aprilia Cup where he claimed his first podium, finishing the season in 6th place.

Another year in the 50cc Aprilia Cup saw him taking two more podiums and ending the season in third place when Alberto Puig chose him from over 4000 applicants for the now famous Movistar Activa Joven Cup in 1999. He finished his first year in 5th place, ahead of Dani Pedrosa, earning him a second year in the Cup and a place as a back-up rider for the 125cc Spanish Championship.

However, injury the following year set him back and despite taking one podium in the Movistar Cup, he only finished the season in ninth place. In 2001 he entered the 125cc Spanish Championship with Team Belart which folded halfway through the season due to financial reasons. But he was spotted by Manuel Morente who signed him up for the remaining races of the season and offered him a new team with iconic Atlético Madrid sponsoring for the following year.

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