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

“The weekend was going pretty well; we’d done a good job and I was feeling comfortable on the bike. I had a good start and was up at the front, with the idea being not to push too hard and to preserve the tyres. This morning we had experienced some tyre wear issues. My goal was to keep calm at the start and then push on later in the race, and things were going perfectly when I was up front and Aoyama was not progressing.
The problem came when I had an engine issue and had my rear wheel jammed on the back straight -I couldn’t do anything. The title seems a big ask now after this setback, we will need a little bit of luck, but I have nothing to lose and can go all-out in the final races to at least say that we gave it our best shot and left nothing behind.”

CLASSIFIED:

Pos | Rider | Bike | Time
1. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 44m04.298s
2. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia + 5.317s
3. Hector Barbera Aprilia + 5.317s
4. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 12.024s
5. Jules Cluzel Aprilia + 14.349s
6. R.Wilairot Honda + 18.256s
7. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 27.631s
8. Mattia Pasini Aprilia + 34.667s
9. Alex Debon Aprilia + 45.410s
10. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 45.891s
11. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 46.204s
12. Shuhei Aoyama Honda + 57.641s
13. Valentin Debise Honda +1m21.309s
14. Alex Baldolini Aprilia +1m35.277s
15. Axel Pons Aprilia + 1 lap
16. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia + 1 lap
17. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia + 1 lap
18. Imre Toth Aprilia + 1 lap
19. C.Moretti Aprilia + 2 laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

Rider | Bike | Laps
Vladimir Leonov Aprilia 24
Shoya Tomizawa Honda 12
R.Locatelli Gilera 9
Raffaele De Rosa Honda 7
Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 4
Hector Faubel Honda 4

FASTEST LAP: Simoncelli, 1m40.863s on lap 17

“It has been a long time since we’ve been on the front row and since we showed good pace in practice so I think we needed this. When you qualify up front you know you have the pace, you have good references and everything is more ‘easy’, so to speak. I’m happy to be on the front row but more for the fact that I feel comfortable and I’m riding the Aprilia how I want to, with a good set-up for the race.
We have been strong and made progress all weekend so I think we’re in the right shape for a good race tomorrow, especially because this is a circuit that has brought us luck for the past three seasons so I hope that run continues tomorrow. I want to fight to win with everything I have. Unfortunately I ran into traffic at the end of the session and the three final laps were pretty much wasted but the important thing is the feeling I have with the bike, my confidence and my pace.”

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap
1 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1′40.596
2 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1′40.654 0.058
3 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1′40.684 0.088
4 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1′40.879 0.283
5 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1′41.008 0.412
6 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1′41.169 0.573
7 Mattia PASINI Team Globalgest 1′41.182 0.586
8 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1′41.190 0.594
9 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1′41.205 0.609
10 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1′41.353 0.757
11 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1′41.537 0.941
12 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1′41.728 1.132
13 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1′41.764 1.168
14 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1′41.794 1.198
15 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 1′42.194 1.598
16 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1′42.312 1.716
17 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 1′42.348 1.752
18 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1′42.659 2.063
19 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1′43.427 2.831
20 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1′43.445 2.849
21 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1′44.305 3.709
22 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1′44.583 3.987
23 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 1′45.605 5.009

Out of limit time
88 Christopher MORETTI ITA Matteoni Racing Aprilia
10 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia

“I’m pretty happy with everything, I just couldn’t get a fast lap in during the last fifteen minutes because I kept getting held up by slower riders. It’s annoying because we could have set a better lap time but at least we have an idea what our ideal setting is. We started out with the base from 2007, when the race took place at more or less the same time of year, and we don’t want to make too many drastic changes to it because it works.
Apart from Barberá, the rest of us are pretty close and there is still a lot of time to get laps in and prepare for the race, so I feel calm – the track isn’t even in perfect shape yet so there’s no need to worry about our position at this stage. My objective is to have as much fun in the race as possible and cut back the gap to Aoyama.”

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap
1 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1′40.777
2 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1′41.327 0.550
3 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1′41.483 0.706
4 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1′41.721 0.944
5 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1′41.729 0.952
6 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1′41.750 0.973
7 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1′41.780 1.003
8 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1′41.890 1.113
9 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1′42.104 1.327
10 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1′42.135 1.358
11 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1′42.346 1.569
12 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1′42.695 1.918
13 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1′42.778 2.001
14 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1′42.923 2.146
15 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1′43.049 2.272
16 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 1′44.273 3.496
17 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 1′44.487 3.710
18 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1′44.871 4.094
19 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1′45.439 4.662
20 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1′45.603 4.826
21 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1′46.204 5.427
22 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1′46.344 5.567

Not classified
75 Mattia PASINI ITA Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia Lap

Out of limit time
8 Bastien CHESAUX SWI Matteoni Racing Aprilia
88 Christopher MORETTI ITA Matteoni Racing Aprilia