BatiFan Blog | The Alvaro Bautista Fan Blog | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

“After the problems that we had in the practices and the work that we had to put in to get back up to the front, it was a pity that I fell. This morning we made an adjustment to the bike and I fell, meaning that I couldn’t assess the change fully even though I had felt good. Everything was going great in the race, and I saw that I was strong.
I had rear tyre problems that caused me to slide around, but I still tried to put it all on the line and take some risks. I only wanted to win, second place was not enough. The finale leaves a bittersweet taste, but at least I can say that I gave my all. Even with everything in place for a good ride, sometimes you need a bit of luck on your side, and for the second consecutive GP we didn’t have that.
It is a pity, because the title is now even further away, but we just have to think that the next two races can go our way, and we can do much better.”

Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap
1. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 28m17.403s
2. Hector Barbera Aprilia + 2.434s
3. Raffaele De Rosa Honda + 2.604s
4. Jules Cluzel Aprilia + 12.118s
5. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia + 12.192s
6. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 12.413s
7. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 12.455s
8. Hector Faubel Honda + 13.112s
9. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda + 13.560s
10. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 27.779s
11. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 28.222s
12. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 28.657s
13. Alex Debon Aprilia + 33.892s
14. Shuhei Aoyama Honda + 38.779s
15. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 40.529s
16. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia +1m23.200s
17. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia +1m24.298s
18. Imre Toth Aprilia + 1 lap
19. Valentin Debise Honda + 1 lap

“This obviously isn’t the result I was hoping for. We had some problems with the rear of the bike yesterday and this morning it was the same story. In the afternoon it looked like we’d improved it a little but I’m still not comfortable. We tried a hard front tyre but it didn’t work as we’d hoped. It makes the bike very stable in the direction changes but we need to adapt the chassis to it and make the whole thing run sweeter. We can’t throw the towel in yet – we have to keep working and do everything we can to improve and make sure we’re in a position to try and fight back in the race tomorrow.”

Pos | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap
1. Raffaele de Rosa Honda 1m33.389s
2. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 1m33.614s + 0.225
3. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 1m33.633s + 0.244
4. Alex Debon Aprilia 1m33.886s + 0.497
5. Hector Barbera Aprilia 1m33.928s + 0.539
6. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia 1m34.030s + 0.641
7. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda 1m34.114s + 0.725
8. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 1m34.192s + 0.803
9. Hector Faubel Honda 1m34.285s + 0.896
10. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 1m34.588s + 1.199
11. Karel Abraham Aprilia 1m34.727s + 1.338
12. Jules Cluzel Aprilia 1m34.921s + 1.532
13. Alex Baldolini Aprilia 1m35.016s + 1.627
14. Lukas Pesek Aprilia 1m35.018s + 1.629
15. Thomas Luthi Aprilia 1m35.374s + 1.985
16. Shuhei Aoyama Honda 1m35.387s + 1.998
17. Roberto Locatelli Gilera 1m36.114s + 2.725
18. Shoya Tomizawa Honda 1m36.711s + 3.322
19. Axel Pons Aprilia 1m36.860s + 3.471
20. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia 1m36.901s + 3.512
21. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia 1m37.525s + 4.136
22. Valentin Debise Honda 1m37.984s + 4.595
23. Imre Toth Aprilia 1m38.346s + 4.957
24. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia 1m38.893s + 5.504

“It was pretty windy today and to be honest I noticed it a lot. I had a few problems in some of the corners, where I had no feeling for the bike. It was moving around a lot in the exits and I couldn’t open the throttle. We worked on both bikes but the second one, which had a different chassis configuration, didn’t work as we had hoped. Anyway, we have to work with what we have and the conditions we’re faced with. Hopefully we can improve tomorrow because this wasn’t a good start. Apart from Barberá the rest of us are within a second so I guess we’ll all be looking to improve. This is the kind of circuit where a few small changes can gain you a lot of time. It’s only the first session and we have plenty of work to do to make me more comfortable on the bike.”

Alvaro had something of a frustrating Friday at Phillip Island not getting comfortable with his bike in the windy conditions. It’s not by any means a “bad” circuit for him, so let’s hope this is just a minor issue and he can get things properly lined up tomorrow…

Pos | Nº | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap | Laps | km/h
1 40 Héctor Barberá Aprilia 1′34.338 17 169.738
2 35 Raffaele De Rosa Honda 1′34.911 0.573 24 168.713
3 16 Jules Cluzel Aprilia 1′34.927 0.589 24 168.685
4 63 Mike Di Meglio Aprilia 1′35.013 0.675 23 168.532
5 55 Hector Faubel Honda 1′35.085 0.747 25 168.405
6 75 Mattia Pasini Aprilia 1′35.119 0.781 23 168.344
7 14 R.Wilairot Honda 1′35.132 0.794 24 168.321
8 6 Alex Debon Aprilia 1′35.150 0.812 21 168.290
9 17 Karel Abraham Aprilia 1′35.219 0.881 27 168.168
10 58 Marco Simoncelli Gilera 1′35.318 0.980 25 167.993
11 4 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 1′35.535 1.197 29 167.611
12 19 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 1′35.759 1.421 26 167.219
13 52 Lukas Pesek Aprilia 1′35.849 1.511 25 167.062
14 12 Thomas Luthi Aprilia 1′36.002 1.664 30 166.796
15 73 Shuhei Aoyama Honda 1′36.107 1.769 27 166.614
16 25 Alex Baldolini Aprilia 1′36.220 1.882 24 166.418
17 15 R.Locatelli Gilera 1′36.884 2.546 26 165.278
18 11 Balázs Németh Aprilia 1′37.791 3.453 27 163.745
19 10 Imre Toth Aprilia 1′38.222 3.884 25 163.026
20 7 Axel Pons Aprilia 1′38.609 4.271 29 162.386
21 53 Valentin Debise Honda 1′38.817 4.479 25 162.044
22 48 Shoya Tomizawa Honda 1′38.971 4.633 24 161.792
23 56 Vladimir Leonov Aprilia 1′39.002 4.664 19 161.742
24 8 Bastien Chesaux Aprilia 1′39.778 5.440 22 160.484