“It hasn’t been a good weekend for us if we are talking about the world title, because Simoncelli is closer to us and Aoyama is now further ahead. I had a lot of problems in practice, just like at Brno where I didn’t feel at all comfortable on the bike. I didn’t manage to find that decent setting that I needed. Yesterday afternoon I felt more confident, and believed that today I could fight at the front. It was a pity that I made such a slow start, because I got stuck behind Debón and it was hard to pass him. When I got through I tried to regain ground with the front two, but they were already too far away. I tried to push at the limit, but on such a bumpy track it is hard to feel comfortable enough to do that when you know that you could fall easily. It hasn’t been the weekend that we expected, but at least we didn’t lose too many points in the standings. We’ll see if at the next few races we can work better in practice, in order to have a setup ready for Sunday.”

CLASSIFIED:

Pos | Rider | Bike | Time
1. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 45m43.599s
2. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 1.943s
3. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 4.661s
4. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia + 12.776s
5. R.Locatelli Gilera + 15.475s
6. Hector Barbera Aprilia + 19.471s
7. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 22.682s
8. Hector Faubel Honda + 32.809s
9. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 49.321s
10. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 49.845s
11. Raffaele De Rosa Honda + 53.567s
12. Alex Baldolini Aprilia +1m29.717s
13. Valentin Debise Honda +1m37.837s
14. Axel Pons Aprilia +1m46.672s
15. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia +1m46.821s
16. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia + 1 lap
17. Imre Toth Aprilia + 1 lap
18. Barrett Long Yamaha + 1 lap
19. Adam Roberts Yamaha + 1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

Rider | Bike | On lap
R.Wilairot Honda 23
Alex Debon Aprilia 18
Jules Cluzel Aprilia 7
Mattia Pasini Aprilia 5
Bastien Chesaux Honda 0

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap

1 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’44.857
2 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’44.892 0.035
3 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’45.396 0.539
4 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’45.704 0.847
5 Mattia PASINI Team Toth Aprilia 1’45.912 1.055
6 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’45.995 1.138
7 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’46.000 1.143
8 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’46.187 1.330
9 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’46.342 1.485
10 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’46.382 1.525
11 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’46.386 1.529
12 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1’46.625 1.768
13 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’46.631 1.774
14 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’46.648 1.791
15 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’46.746 1.889
16 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’48.101 3.244
17 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1’48.587 3.730
18 Bastien CHESAUX Racing Team Germany 1’49.160 4.303
19 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1’49.366 4.509
20 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1’49.400 4.543
21 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1’49.750 4.893
22 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1’50.035 5.178
23 Adam ROBERTS Rat Racing 1’53.740 8.883

Not classified
29 Barrett LONG USA Longevity Racing Yamaha

Lap

The Grand Prix Commission, composed of Messrs. Carmelo Ezpeleta (Dorna, Chairman), Claude Danis (FIM), Hervé Poncharal (IRTA) and Takanao Tsubouchi (MSMA), in the presence of Messrs. Vito Ippolito (FIM President), Ignacio Verneda (FIM Sport Director), Javier Alonso (Dorna) and Paul Butler (Secretary of the meeting), in a meeting held on August 29 in Indianapolis (USA) unanimously decided the following:
For immediate application:

Changes to Article 2.9 Tyre restrictions for MotoGP

2.9.1 Delete “and the allocated quantities of each specification of tyre will be the same for every rider”.

2.9.2 In the case of a rider change after the final allocation has been made, the replacement rider must use only the tyres allocated to the original rider.

2.9.3 Teams must inform the supplier of the number of each front slick specification selected by their rider(s) no later than (…)
Any new rider entering the next race after the selection deadline will be allocated 4 front slick tyres of specification A and 4 of specification B.

Changes to the press release dated 25/07/09.
Practice Restrictions.

The Season is defined as the period starting 14 days before the first race of the year and ending 4 days after the last race of the year, both dates being inclusive. The season does not include “Breaks”. A Break is defined as two consecutive week-ends where events are not scheduled. The period of the Break extends from 09h00 on the second day after the Grand Prix until the following Grand Prix.

Ahead of today’s race the Spanish newspaper El Pais has published an interview with Alvaro about his season so far, the signing with Suzuki and his state of mind.
Interview conducted by Oriol Puigdemont in Indianpolis yesterday, translated by the crew of www.alvarobautista.co.uk.

“A fast rider is fast on any bike”

In one of the offices on the second floor of the huge Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a circuit at which the 500 Mile Race gets 400.000 spectators together, Alvaro Bautista (Talavera of Reina, 24), takes off the boots, the leathers and the gloves and makes himself comfortable. At the last race in Brno, Bautista, who was 125cc world champion three years ago and currently occupies the second place in the 250cc championship, took a big weight off his shoulders when he announced that he will join the MotoGP class with Suzuki next season.

El Pais: Did you have a lot to explain to your mechanics after crashing your bike in the lap of honour?
Alvaro: Those things can happen [laughs]. I was lucky that it happened after the race and the mechanics just laughed about me.

El Pais: How do you explain that it is a Honda [of Hiroshi Aoyama], which wasn’t developed for a long time, that is the bike that leads the championship?
Alvaro: Honda has abandoned the development of the 250cc engine, maybe that what is the exact reason why Aoyama is ahead. Before, the material that Honda gave you just was what it was and you couldn’t change anything about it. They said to you: “This is the cylinder, this the suspensions and this is what there is”. The abandoning of 250cc has allowed the teams to deal with it in any way they can and work with the engines. More than Honda, those who are the reason for the good run are the mechanics of Aoyama. They have improved the engine efficiency a lot, that was its weak point. In my first year in 250cc (2007) I passed Dovizioso on a straight without too many problems, only with engine power. Now, if I am able to pass Aoyama on the straight it’s just by a smidge and because I took advantage of the slipstream.

El Pais: With the arrival of Moto2 next year, does Aprilia continue developing bikes with the same persistence?
Alvaro: Obviously not. When they constantly win titles in the small classes for several years and if their competitors can not come a little closer, the effort will subside. And in any case you have to consider that Aprilia now focuses a lot on Superbikes.

El Pais: What happened to the awaited repeat of the duel between Simoncelli and you?
Alvaro: In this sport there are always more competitors and now Aoyama is the leader whereas Simoncelli did not start the season well. Aoyama is a very regular rider, always at the front and if he can’t finish first he takes the fourth, he always gets points. Now we are three title candidates and I believe that we will be fighting until the end. Last year Simoncelli and I were a step above the rest. But sometimes riders arrive at a limit and to step over that limit takes them more than to arrive there.

El Pais: You always assured that you’d like to step up a category with the title of the previous one won. This time you don’t have it easy.
Alvaro: That’s for sure. I am 12 points behind Aoyama and don’t forget Simoncelli. Marco doesn’t have anything to lose, because he’s pretty far from the lead [32 points]. He can risk something. And the same goes for Aoyama, because he had some difficult years before. It is necessary to try and cut some points, but at the same time make sure that they don’t cut points to me.

El Pais: You make the impression that it takes you a little more to stay among the fastest.
Alvaro: That might be because after the qualifying I started the race more worried. But that was only in Brno. In Germany the qualifying was in the wet, in Great Britain I crashed in the first session and injured my arm, all that can happen, these are situations that happen in racing. In Brno I was indeed not very comfortable, but it was also definitely a weekend different from the rest, because I had to solve my future in MotoGP.

El Pais: Wouldn’t it be easier for you if you wouldn’t have to make up so many places with overtaking other riders? Isn’t there a way to make your starts a little better?
Alvaro: I just do that to make it all a little more excited [laughs]. There are times when I start good and others where I don’t, but the important thing is to be ahead. If you have the pace, even when you start a little badly, you will end up getting to the first positions. A comeback, rolling up the field from behind, is a good declaration of intent. To those ahead they will show on the pitboard that you are coming and they think: “How did this guy make his way up from behind?”

El Pais: Did you think about the importance of starting well in MotoGP?
Alvaro: It will not be as easy there as it is here. The whole start procedure is also a little different. It will be necessary to get used to the electronics and everything else.

El Pais: Will you race a little calmer now, after you have already signed your contract with Suzuki?
Alvaro: I will be calmer in the sense that people [journalists] will leave me in peace now, but not on the track.

El Pais: With your decision to join Suzuki you seem to be more confident about facing the change of category with an official factory team instead of with Aspar. Is this true?
Alvaro: Is clear that when I made this decision the sport element played a decisive role. It was a better possibility of having an equipment working for me than continuing with Aspar. Here (with Aspar) I have had four fantastic years, it couldn’t have been better. But for this project we said that I need that sport component that a factory offers. I will be new in the category, and when with Suzuki I have the possibility to completely adapt the bike to my needs, the evolution will be faster. This would be very difficult in a satellite team.

El Pais: What can you contribute to a factory like Suzuki?
Alvaro: Youth and desire. Suzuki is great factory that has Capirossi who has already achieved much in the past, but who, with all the motivation that he has, does not encounter this like a 24-year-old. I will be able to contribute this, the desire to work, to evolve fast and, above all, to win. At the moment, in MotoGP, the Yamaha is the most balanced bike, and behind them there’s sometimes one and other times another. But Valentino signed for Yamaha (in 2004) when nobody wanted that bike and he changed everything, why wouldn’t the same be possible with another manufacturer?

El Pais: Pedrosa arrived at MotoGP in 2006 and that year he already won races and Lorenzo did the same last season. What can we hope to see from you?
Alvaro: Right now I haven’t even sat on the bike, I have no idea how it will go. In any case, when a rider is fast, he is it on any bike. I trust that I will adapt as fast as possible to get some good results. Right now it is difficult to say what goals I have in MotoGP, because not even I have thought about how it will work out, we will see when next year’s preseason has finished.

“We changed the setting from the morning to the afternoon because we had some rear end problems that we needed to fix, but it didn’t work out as we’d hoped and we went back a step. We also tried some different tyres with the race in mind and they had the desired effect, which allowed me to set a good pace at the end. Sixth tenths seems like a lot but with the slipstream here down the long straight it will be much closer in the race. I’m happy because we’re doing a decent job and I feel more comfortable here than I did last year, which was a disaster. It looks like we’re closer to the right set-up and the lap times are better. We have to try and chase Aoyama and Simoncelli tomorrow but this circuit is a little different to the rest and there could be the odd surprise. The important thing is to get a good start, don’t make mistakes and pick up points.”

A rather disappointing qualifying session for Bati today, finishing only in 6th position and starting tomorrow’s race from the second row.
Congratulations to his teammate Mike Di Meglio however who achieved his first 250cc pole position today.

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap

1 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’44.341
2 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’44.461 0.120
3 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’44.553 0.212
4 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’44.625 0.284
5 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’44.860 0.519
6 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’44.955 0.614
7 Mattia PASINI Team Toth Aprilia 1’45.158 0.817
8 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’45.192 0.851
9 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’45.396 1.055
10 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1’45.438 1.097
11 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’45.439 1.098
12 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’45.560 1.219
13 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’45.778 1.437
14 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’46.177 1.836
15 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’46.195 1.854
16 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’46.908 2.567
17 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1’47.838 3.497
18 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1’48.458 4.117
19 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1’48.650 4.309
20 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1’49.143 4.802
21 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1’49.807 5.466
22 Bastien CHESAUX Racing Team Germany 1’49.888 5.547
23 Adam ROBERTS Rat Racing 1’51.296 6.955

Not classified
48 Shoya TOMIZAWA JPN CIP Moto – GP250 Honda Lap

Out of limit time
29 Barrett LONG USA Longevity Racing Yamaha

Dry conditions during the second free practice saw the usual 250cc frontrunner back at the top. Alvaro was fast from the beginning and battling for the first postion all throughout the session, but finally finished in 5th place. With very close laptimes within the Top10 it should make for an interesting qualifying this afternoon.

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap

1 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’45.001
2 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’45.049 0.048
3 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’45.211 0.210
4 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’45.373 0.372
5 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’45.386 0.385
6 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1’45.558 0.557
7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’45.712 0.711
8 Mattia PASINI Team Toth Aprilia 1’45.841 0.840
9 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’45.921 0.920
10 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’45.923 0.922
11 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’46.330 1.329
12 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’46.390 1.389
13 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’46.412 1.411
14 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’46.515 1.514
15 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’46.894 1.893
16 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’47.371 2.370
17 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1’48.443 3.442
18 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1’49.397 4.396
19 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1’49.574 4.573
20 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1’50.018 5.017
21 Bastien CHESAUX Racing Team Germany 1’50.206 5.205
22 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1’50.459 5.458
23 Barrett LONG Longevity Racing 1’52.148 7.147

Not classified
48 Shoya TOMIZAWA JPN CIP Moto – GP250 Honda Lap

Out of limit time
30 Adam ROBERTS CAN Rat Racing Yamaha