Rizla Suzuki racers Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista have a tough afternoon ahead of them at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday after a difficult qualifying session today.
Capirossi and Bautista started promisingly in the hour-long session this afternoon and were both running in the top-10 during the first half-hour, when most riders were using the harder compound race tyre. Capirossi recorded a fastest lap of 1’40.206, just one second behind pole-setter Dani Pedrosa, but with the closeness of MotoGP qualifying, Suzuki’s Italian star finds himself on the fourth row of the grid in 11th place for the race.
Bautista’s fastest lap of 1’40.416 was his fastest time of the weekend and his progress throughout the day pleased him as he continues to improve his MotoGP riding technique. He will start his first home MotoGP race from 13th on the grid, but will certainly be pushing to get up amongst the pack and give all his Spanish fans something to cheer about on race-day.
Tomorrow’s 27-lap race is the second round of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship and with Spaniards Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo filling the first two grid positions, the huge crowd that will be trackside can expect an exciting event when the race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00GMT).
Álvaro Bautista:
“I have improved on my best time here and we have done quite a good job today. This morning I tried some different settings between the two bikes and in the afternoon we chose one of the set-ups and I am sure it is the right one. With the hard tyre I did a long ride and was quite happy with my time in the mid 1’40s – this is quite positive for me. I still have a few issues after a few laps because I am feeling that the tyre is moving too much, but we will work on that in the warm-up and see what we can do. On the softer rear tyre I tried to push to the maximum, but this is not like 250s, in 250 you can brake much later and with the MotoGP bike it is more difficult to do one fast lap, but I am learning! I am quite happy and want to have a good home race and get into a fight with a group further up the grid. I t is very important to do my best and give a good race for Suzuki, the sponsors and all my family and fans.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Álvaro did a very good 14-lap run at the start of qualifying using race tyres and with a few adjustments his pace looks promising. He’s bunched in a start group with the other 250 guys from last year, so keep your eyes peeled, because I think there will be fireworks on both ends of the grid tomorrow afternoon!”
Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
