Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista had to contend with severe discomfort and pain during the first practice session at Le Mans in France today.

Bautista suffered a broken collarbone just over a week ago and had surgery to plate the break only last Friday, but he worked hard on his fitness during the last seven days and was back in the saddle of his Suzuki GSV-R for this afternoon’s session. He battled manfully for 19 laps of 4,185m French track, recording a fastest time of 1’37.525. Bautista used no pain-killing treatment before today’s session and will re-assess his condition after tomorrow morning’s final practice session to judge whether he is fit enough to race on Sunday.

Loris Capirossi (P11, 1’35.685, 23 laps) had a strong and productive first day. He only used one set of Bridgestone tyres for the whole session and is confident that tomorrow will bring a more positive result. He was in-touch with the front group throughout the day and will be determined to be right in amongst that group on race-day. Today’s practice was held in warm and sunny conditions with air temperatures getting up to 28ºC. Valentino Rossi on his factory Yamaha set the fastest time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki has one more hour of free practice on Saturday morning, followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) when hopefully both Rizla Suzuki riders will line up on the grid.

Álvaro Bautista:
“I thought that I would feel better today than I do! I have worked very hard this week to be fit and I was confident that I would be able to ride the bike. It was very difficult though, because after two or three laps I started to lose energy and my left arm was hurting a lot and I couldn’t ride like I wanted to. Tomorrow I will have a pain-killing injection and hopefully the pain will be less. I will then make a decision if I continue with the weekend, today the maximum I felt I could do was five laps and the race is 28, so I still have a long way to go. I will try with the injection and see if things improve.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Álvaro chose to ride today with no pain-killers and no injection, to assess exactly where he was at and he certainly lost his sun-tan over the course of the session! Motorcycle racers are a tough breed, but there comes a point when pain and lack of strength will win the day. Hopefully with some physiotherapy tonight and the injection in the morning, we’ll be in a better position to understand if a full race distance on Sunday is possible.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Pictures of Alvaro’s livery for the French Grand Prix in Le Mans this weekend. Since French laws don’t allow for Rizla to be promoted by the team, the bikes now have the rider number’s on the side.

Another surprising change this weekend is that Alvaro apparently changed his helmet sponsor and now rides with Shoei instead of Suomy. The slightly different form of the new helmet also causes the design to be adjusted a little, moving the number 19 from the side further to the back.

Photos courtesy of Rizla Suzuki MotoGP.

Expectedly Alvaro struggled quite a bit with his collarbone fracture in the first free practice today and consequently finished the session in last place. Some TV footage also showed him in the box where he had difficulties to even take his helmet off and was obviously in pain.
However, he improved his laptimes constantly and towards the end of the practice also started his laps on the pace close to the mid-field before losing a lot of time in the last two sectors.
He rode without painkillers today to test the waters, but will surely get some injections tomorrow which should see him improve and able to race despite the injury.

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 1’34.402
2 Casey STONER Ducati Marlboro Team 1’34.508 0.106 / 0.106
3 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’34.542 0.140 / 0.034
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’34.625 0.223 / 0.083
5 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’34.989 0.587 / 0.364
6 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’35.089 0.687 / 0.100
7 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Marlboro Team 1’35.223 0.821 / 0.134
8 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’35.291 0.889 / 0.068
9 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’35.450 1.048 / 0.159
10 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’35.643 1.241 / 0.193
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’35.685 1.283 / 0.042
12 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’35.959 1.557 / 0.274
13 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’36.009 1.607 / 0.050
14 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’36.086 1.684 / 0.077
15 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’36.292 1.890 / 0.206
16 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’36.798 2.396 / 0.506
17 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’37.525 3.123 / 0.727

AS.com had a quick chat with Alvaro ahead of the French Grand Prix this weekend, talking about his recent collarbone fracture and his decision to ride anyway.

How many stitches did you get?
They are internal, I thing it’s ten stitches and I am not at 100%, because it’s not even been a week since the surgery.

At how much percent do you think you are at the moment
I don’t know. Every day I feel better, I feel a lot better. I hope that I can recover more every day and go fit into the race. Already on the second day [after the surgery] I could put on a shirt myself, even though it did take me half an hour. Now I can do it faster again.

Have you been on the bike already?
I did a lap with the Scooter, but very slowly.

Will you get painkiller injections?
Not at the moment. I am going to try it out in the practice. I want to ride to see if I can continue the progress, I’m not just gonna get a few laps in and be a Sunday driver. When I get on the bike I will see how I am and if I need injections I’ll get them. In the free practice I will see if I can ride comfortably. If that’s not possible, I will get some injections and test it on Saturday. But if it hurts too much and I can’t ride, we have to see if I will race. We will find all that out in the first practice. It depends on the pain what I will do.

Why that much sacrifice?
I don’t have anything to lose. If I am gonna suffer more than I enjoy riding, I won’t race and that’s it. Aside from the operation, I also have a bruise on the left side and I don’t have any feeling in this part yet. The only restraint that I have is the muscular pain. It is all a question of time.

Source: AS.com

Despite fracturing his right collarbone only a week ago, Alvaro is determined to ride through the pain this weekend in Le Mans. However, until he’s actually sat on the bike and taken it around the circuit for a few laps, he won’t know for sure if he can really compete in the French Grand Prix or not.
The Suzuki Team certainly won’t pressure him to ride and rather have him fit for the next races, so in case Alvaro decides not to ride this weekend, they already brought test rider Nobuatsu Aoki with them to Le Mans who will be the reserve rider.

Alvaro himself says: “The team didn’t tell me that I should ride or that I shouldn’t. It is my decision. I told them that I hope I’ll be able to race, but I won’t know for sure until I get on the bike. I’ve seen that Aoki is here, so I think he will race if I can’t do it.”

The first free practice starts at 13.55 o’clock local time and will last an hour. After that we shall find out how Alvaro got along with the pain and movement restrictions.

Source: AS.com