Good result came from Rizla Suzuki racer Álvaro Bautista after finish eighth place at his home race Aragon. Got a good start from 12th on the grid, Bautista was blocked at the first corner and couldn’t capitalise on it to make up as many places as he wanted.
“I had some great battles out there with De Puniet, Barbera and some other riders and I really had fun during the race. At the beginning I had a bit of a problem when I was braking and I felt a lot of moving in the front, so I couldn’t keep up my speed entering the corners. I wasn’t able to push how I wanted, but luckily after a few laps the bike started to work how I wanted it to – it was much more like the bike I had in qualifying so I was able to find a good rhythm. In the middle of the race the performance started to deteriorate and it was getting very difficult to follow Barbera on the fast back straight. This made it very difficult to overtake him and if I did manage he immediately came back past on that straight, so that made me lose more time on the guys in front and the riders behind started to catch us. I had to fight right until the last corner on the last lap to keep eighth place once I’d got past Barbera, I was forced to close every line and in the very last turn Melandri tried to come past but I was able to block him. Today the bike was probably not perfect because the tyres started to slide from the middle of the race onwards. I fought as hard as I could and eighth is not a bad result, but I certainly think we can do better.”
Rizla Suzuki and the rest of the MotoGP paddock now embark on a three–week Far East tour taking in Japan, Malaysia and Australia in consecutive weekends. The first of the trio will be at Motegi in Japan on Sunday 3rd October, when Rizla Suzuki look to welcome back Loris Capirossi from injury to partner Bautista at Suzuki’s home Grand Prix.
