During the upcoming last round of the European Championship, held at the Albacete Circuit on November 1st, there will be a special ceremony to reveal the newly named curves 11 and 12. The two curves are part of one chicane and will be named after Alvaro Bautista and Julian Simon, in tribute to the two world champions from Castilla La Mancha and the impact they have on the sport for the region.

Invited guests to the event included former world champions and racing legends like Angel Nieto, Jorge Martinez, Manuel “Champi” Herreros, Emilio Alzamora, Carlos Cardús, Julián Miralles and of course the two honoured champions themselves.

Congratulations to both riders! Very well deserved honour.

They’re asking you for your fave riders over at MotoGP Hotties… Go vote for Alvaro and make sure you get loads more pictures of him online. The vote won’t be open forever so go there now…
The page to vote on is here… – and of course it’s a great chance to shout out for your other favourite riders too. MotoGP Hotties doesn’t only cover MotoGP, but also WSBK, BSB, AMA, Supersport and Superstock – basically pretty much anything that involves two wheels and cute guys.

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“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.”

A very strong comeback from Alvaro – starting from 10th on the grid and getting up to 2nd position – saw an unfortunate ending when he crashed out while battling for the lead. He was able to rejoin the race, but only way down in 10th position.
Soon after the race was red-flagged due to a heavy crash of Roberto Locatelli which left the Italian lying unconscious on the track, making the positions from the previous round the final result of the race. Unfortunately this meant one lap too late for Alvaro to still be awarded 2nd place, but it also meant that current championship leader Hiro Aoyama was only classified in 7th position, meaning that Alvaro lost only 3 points on him.
The win was once again handed to Simoncelli who also overtook Bati in the standings now, but with still only 29 points difference to the leader and two races to go, Alvaro’s challenge is far from over until the points say so.

Pos. Rider Team Motorcycle Total time Km/h Gap

1 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera Gilera 28’17.403 169.806
2 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team Aprilia 28’19.837 169.563 2.434
3 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc Honda 28’20.007 169.546 2.604
4 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing Aprilia 28’29.521 168.603 12.118
5 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc Aprilia 28’29.595 168.595 12.192
6 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing Aprilia 28’29.816 168.573 12.413
7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc Honda 28’29.858 168.569 12.455
8 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG Honda 28’30.515 168.505 13.112
9 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG Honda 28’30.963 168.460 13.560
10 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team Aprilia 28’45.182 167.072 27.779
11 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte Aprilia 28’45.625 167.029 28.222
12 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP Aprilia 28’46.060 166.987 28.657
13 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens Aprilia 28’51.295 166.482 33.892
14 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany Honda 28’56.182 166.013 38.779
15 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 Honda 28’57.932 165.846 40.529
16 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team Aprilia 29’40.603 161.872 1’23.200
17 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing Aprilia 29’41.701 161.772 1’24.298
18 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia 28’40.153 158.251 1 Lap
19 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 Honda 28’45.916 157.723 1 Lap

Not classified
15 Roberto LOCATELLI ITA Metis Gilera Gilera 28’47.918 30.515
7 Axel PONS SPA Pepe World Team Aprilia 26’09.203 2 Lap
25 Alex BALDOLINI ITA WTR San Marino Team Aprilia 24’23.926 3 Lap
75 Mattia PASINI ITA Paddock GP Racing Team Aprilia 11’11.057 11 Lap
56 Vladimir LEONOV RUS Viessmann Kiefer Racing Aprilia 12’15.184 11 Lap

Under a very cloudy sky and with low temperatures the 250cc warmup meant the final opportunity for Alvaro to adjust his setup for the race later today. After he seemed to have made some promising improvements early on, he later had a nasty looking crash in the last section of the track with only a few minutes remaining. He didn’t get up immediately after the crash and it is yet unclear if he might or might not have injured himself. However, he managed to get out again in his second bike in the closing minutes, but wasn’t able to improve his time in the one fast lap he still had.
We hope he will be fit to race and keep our fingers crossed!

Pos. Rider Team Lap time Gap

1 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’33.720
2 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’34.087 0.367
3 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’34.202 0.482
4 Mattia PASINI Paddock GP Racing Team 1’34.277 0.557
5 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’34.278 0.558
6 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’34.279 0.559
7 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’34.428 0.708
8 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’34.534 0.814
9 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’34.712 0.992
10 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1’34.944 1.224
11 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’35.034 1.314
12 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’35.218 1.498
13 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’35.246 1.526
14 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’35.413 1.693
15 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’35.452 1.732
16 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’35.457 1.737
17 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 1’36.194 2.474
18 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 1’36.304 2.584
19 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1’36.570 2.850
20 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1’37.033 3.313
21 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1’37.808 4.088
22 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1’38.039 4.319
23 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 1’38.767 5.047
24 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1’39.481 5.761

A day of mixed weather at Phillip Island dealt its worst hand to the 250cc class, with free practice starting on a damp track this morning and a dry afternoon qualifying interrupted by a brief shower.
 
It was not a good session for Álvaro Bautista, who has struggled all weekend to find a set-up for his Aprilia. The Spaniard experimented with a variety of front and rear solutions and tyre compounds today as he searched for more stability but he was unable to get completely comfortable and could manage no higher than tenth. Álvaro will continue to work hard in tomorrow morning’s warm-up session as he plots a comeback from the third row of the grid.

10th Álvaro Bautista 1.34.588 (20 laps):
“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

12th – Álvaro Bautista 1.35.759 (26 laps):
“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.”