Álvaro Bautista and the Rizla Suzuki team are heading to Spain for his home Grand Prix this weekend to be held at Montmelo near Barcelona.

Bautista comes from Talavera de la Reina near Madrid and although there will be four Grands Prix held in Spain this year; the 25-year-old is focusing on the next race as his local event. He is sure to have plenty of home support at a circuit where he has tasted success with two victories in the last four years in the 125cc and 250cc classes.

Loris Capirossi has an equally impressive record at the Spanish circuit. He finished fifth there last season in Rizla Suzuki colours and has only once completed a race lower than sixth place. Capirossi is in a determined mood to put recent events behind him and get the Suzuki GSV-R back to a competitive package as soon as possible.

The 4,727m Circuit de Catalunya is situated at Montmelo near Granollers, about an hour’s drive from the city centre of Barcelona. It is a modern circuit and has all the ingredients you could want for a fantastic Grand Prix event. A kilometre-long straight where speeds in excess of 300kp/h will be achieved, fast right-handers, elevation changes and a huge fan-base of highly excited and colourful Spanish fans. The Catalan Grand Prix is certainly a highlight on the MotoGP calendar and one not to be missed.

Rizla Suzuki will take to the track for one practice session on Friday afternoon, followed by another on Saturday morning. An hour of qualifying on Saturday afternoon will decide grid positions for Bautista, Capirossi and the rest of the field for Sunday’s 25-lap race.

Alvaro Bautista: “I have had a couple of days rest and my arm feels a lot better than it did in Assen and I am sure it will be much stronger this weekend. Barcelona is a very good track for me to go to next, because it is very long and very fast so it won’t be as physically demanding as Assen. It is a very special place for all the Spanish riders because you can feel every fan pushing you and wanting you to go fast, so it is a very good feeling to be there. I won in 2006 in 125 and 2009 in the 250, so I have very good memories of the circuit and with it being my home Grand Prix I will be trying to get a good result for myself and the whole team – we really need one now so this will be a good place to start.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

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Rizla Suzuki MotoGP are already targeting next week’s Catalunya Grand Prix in Barcelona after a difficult race at the Dutch TT in Assen today left the team with a lot of work to do.
Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista finished in 13th and 14th places respectively and this result was well below what they were expecting at the 4,542m Dutch circuit.

Bautista did the best he could today as he struggled with his injured shoulder around the physically demanding circuit. He began the race in severe discomfort and although he tried to push hard he couldn’t find that strength to battle it out with other riders. He rode a lonely race before bringing his bike home safely after 26 gruelling laps.

The Dutch spectators filled the Assen circuit today for the 80th running of the Dutch TT; with 97,146 fans at trackside to witness Jorge Lorenzo take his second successive victory to increase his lead at the head of the riders’ championship.

Rizla Suzuki now makes the European cross-continental trip to Montmelo near Barcelona in Spain for the next round of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship, to be held at the Catalonian circuit on Sunday 4th July.

Álvaro Bautista:
“This has been a very bad race for us for a couple of reasons. Yesterday in qualifying it looked like we had improved the bike, but when I woke up this morning I felt more pain in my left arm. I think that yesterday I did too much and today my left arm was very tired and painful. This was a bad start for a race, but I tried to be positive and have a good race. From the first lap though it felt very difficult riding the bike, because it felt like the tyres were still not warm enough, so I tried to push and find my rhythm like in practice, but the bike just moved around much more than it did in practice – I don’t know why. I struggled a lot in the race and I just tried to do the best I could. I hope that the feeling is better for the next race because it is my home GP. I have a week to get some more strength in my arm and try to recover a bit more and hopefully get a better result in Barcelona.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Things have been very difficult this season and they didn’t get any easier today! Álvaro’s potential is unclear, based on the fact that his injury restricted him so much again today. We hope that the layout of the Barcelona track will be a bit kinder to his body and allow him to push harder. I want to say sorry to Loris and Álvaro that we couldn’t give them a competitive machine today, Loris especially is incredibly frustrated and that frustration is shared by all of us. We have to keep working hard and keep focused to find the key that will allow the riders to perform to the best of their abilities.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Not a good race for Alvaro. He started a bit slow, losing a few positions to the first corner and for some reason lost a lot of time in the first laps, quickly being over 5 seconds behind the group going up to 10th place. He later started to improve his pace to be even faster than the guys in front of him for some time, but the gap was already too big and he never had the chance to battle it out with anyone at Assen.
It was expected that he might run into some troubles towards the end of the race with stronger pain in his left arm and shoulder, but at the moment it is not clear what his problem was in the first laps that made him lose so much time.

Pos. Rider Team Km/h Time/Gap
1 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 171.5 41’18.629
2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 171.3 +2.935
3 Casey STONER Ducati Team 171.0 +7.022
4 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 170.6 +13.265
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 170.5 +15.323
6 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 170.4 +15.772
7 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 169.7 +25.867
8 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 169.5 +28.991
9 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 169.1 +35.658
10 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 169.1 +35.837
11 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 167.7 +56.769
12 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 167.7 +56.890
13 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 167.4 +1’00.615
14 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 166.9 +1’08.074
15 Kousuke AKIYOSHI Interwetten Honda MotoGP 163.4 1 Lap

Nice sunny conditions create the perfect setting for today’s Dutch TT at Assen. The warm up for the MotoGP riders saw business as usual with the only notable changes from qualifying being Pedrosa leaping up into second position and Randy De Puniet going down the order.
Alvaro finished the session in 14th position, lapping about a second slower than yesterday.

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’34.773
2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’34.924 0.151 / 0.151
3 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1’35.010 0.237 / 0.086
4 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’35.352 0.579 / 0.342
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’35.461 0.688 / 0.109
6 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’35.692 0.919 / 0.231
7 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’35.721 0.948 / 0.029
8 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’36.093 1.320 / 0.372
9 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1’36.185 1.412 / 0.092
10 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’36.379 1.606 / 0.194
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’36.516 1.743 / 0.137
12 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’36.697 1.924 / 0.181
13 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’37.160 2.387 / 0.463
14 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’37.338 2.565 / 0.178
15 Kousuke AKIYOSHI Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’40.230 5.457 / 2.892

Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini

Rizla Suzuki racers Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista will start side-by-side on the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow’s Dutch TT at Assen in the Netherlands.

Bautista (1’36.344, 28 laps) produced his best qualifying performance of the season to put his bike next to Capirossi on the fourth row in 12th place. Despite still struggling with his shoulder injury – that has manifested itself to a greater extent than at Silverstone – he continued to make improvements to his lap-times before setting his best time on his penultimate lap of the day. Bautista is in a confident mood for tomorrow’s 26-lap race as he goes in search of his best finish in a MotoGP race to match today’s qualifying.

Today’s qualifying was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 42ºC. Jorge Lorenzo on his factory Yamaha took his second successive pole position of the season.

Tomorrow’s race is the only event on the Grand Prix calendar to be held on a Saturday and proceedings will commence at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) for the 80th running of the historic Dutch TT.

Álvaro Bautista:
“This morning I had some problems with my left arm and I felt quite a lot of pain. I think it is because this track is very physical and requires a lot more work with my arm. For this afternoon I took some pain-killers, but it was still very uncomfortable so I tried to take things a bit easier, so I could save myself for the race tomorrow. We resolved some of the problems we had from yesterday and made some improvements, but we are still not quite there. I still have some problems changing direction as I feel that the bike is very heavy because I don’t have the strength in my arm. We still have some small things to try in warm-up to make some small steps to make things better. I want to start well and stay with a good group and be able to push more as the race goes on. I hope the pain doesn’t get any worse during the race and I can enjoy it. I am confident that I can make a good result, but the main thing is to enjoy riding the bike.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“There is no great satisfaction to be taken from the result today, but after the Silverstone weekend at least we can say that we have made a start to rebuilding the season. Loris is only 0.9 seconds off the front row and while that gap is too big, it’s a lot smaller than it was a week ago. Unfortunately Álvaro is struggling more with his injury than he was last week and despite showing good potential in some parts of the track, he is struggling in the important fast changes of direction – both with the bike setting and his injury – so the team will be working hard tonight to make it easier for the race tomorrow. Our target for tomorrow is not too far-fetched – we’d like to see both riders finish the Grand Prix, score some points and take a better platform on to Catalunya next weekend.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Good qualifying session from Alvaro this afternoon. He managed to improve his previous fastest laptime by almost a second and in last few laps of the session he moved up to 12th position. So he will start tomorrow’s race from fourth row, next to his teammate Loris Capirossi. The pace from the riders at the end of the field promises another battle for the race like we’ve seen in Silverstone with a small group running at about the same laptimes, giving Alvaro another chance to really fight it out with other riders again.

After his crash in FP2 this morning Marco Melandri did not participate in the qualifying and is likely to not start the race.

Results Qualifying Dutch TT

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’34.515
2 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’34.797 0.282 / 0.282
3 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1’34.803 0.288 / 0.006
4 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’34.926 0.411 / 0.123
5 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1’34.999 0.484 / 0.073
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’35.015 0.500 / 0.016
7 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’35.162 0.647 / 0.147
8 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’35.283 0.768 / 0.121
9 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’35.393 0.878 / 0.110
10 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’35.593 1.078 / 0.200
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’35.664 1.149 / 0.071
12 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’36.344 1.829 / 0.680
13 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’36.502 1.987 / 0.158
14 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’36.569 2.054 / 0.067
15 Kousuke AKIYOSHI Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’38.198 3.683 / 1.629

Did not qualify
Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini

Bati finished the session in 15th, slightly improving yesterday’s laptime, but unable to find more improvements after his 8th lap today.
The session was marred by a nasty crash of Marco Melandri who dislocated his shoulder and has been ruled out of the race tomorrow which leaves again only 15 riders for the race.

Full Results FP2:

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’34.769
2 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1’35.088 0.319 / 0.319
3 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’35.451 0.682 / 0.363
4 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’35.518 0.749 / 0.067
5 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1’35.576 0.807 / 0.058
6 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’35.598 0.829 / 0.022
7 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’35.626 0.857 / 0.028
8 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’35.640 0.871 / 0.014
9 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’35.965 1.196 / 0.325
10 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’36.177 1.408 / 0.212
11 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’36.224 1.455 / 0.047
12 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’36.297 1.528 / 0.073
13 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’36.388 1.619 / 0.091
14 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’36.944 2.175 / 0.556
15 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’37.190 2.421 / 0.246
16 Kousuke AKIYOSHI Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’39.379 4.610 / 2.189