Rizla Suzuki will be looking to make big improvements during tomorrow’s final free practice session after a tough first hour on the track at Indianapolis today left both riders with work to do.

Álvaro Bautista (P14, 1’42.696, 26 laps) used today’s only session to get his bearings around the 4,216m Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a MotoGP bike. Having only previously visited the circuit on a 250cc machine, he needed time to get used to the track and find his braking and accelerating points. Bautista recorded his fastest lap right at the end of the session and is in a determined mood to make personal improvements for the rest of the weekend.

Today’s practise was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 51ºC. Casey Stoner on his factory Ducati recorded the fastest time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki has one more practice session tomorrow morning, followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28 lap race gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (19.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista:
“This was my first time around here on a MotoGP bike and it was very different from the 250 – especially the first corner because you go in there very fast. I used this practice very much as a learning session and to get my reference points sorted for the rest of the weekend. I need to get more rear grip from the bike because when I put on the gas in the middle of the corner I feel that the bike is sliding too much. Also the entry to the corner is not what I want, because if I enter quick I am unable to turn the bike how I want to and I lose too much time. Tomorrow we will work on these things and although we know it will be hard work I think we can improve the bike and I also know I need to improve myself as well.”

Tom O’Kane – Álvaro Bautista’s Crew Chief:
“We used the new chassis in Álvaro’s bike today, but we didn’t make as big a step as we expected to when we swapped to the softer compound tyre. For tomorrow we will be working a lot on rear grip because Álvaro is struggling to get the feel he wants all the way through the turns and to get the best out of the soft tyre. We are really hoping to improve the bike on corner entry, because some of the corners tighten up a lot here and we really need to make the bike turn much better. Overall though we are pleased with Álvaro’s first day at Indianapolis and now he’s got this session under his belt I am sure he will be much stronger tomorrow and for the race on Sunday.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Perfect track conditions for the first free MotoGP practice at Indianapolis today. Bati started the day well, looking competitive in the first half of the session, sitting comfortably around 10th place the whole time. But he failed to improve much towards the end of the practice when the rest of the riders pulled out some faster laptimes and he ended the day in 14th position with a last lap effort that put him ahead of his teammate as well.

It looked like there might have been some settings of the bike going into the wrong direction, so we hope this can be sorted out in time for qualifying tomorrow and enable Alvaro to get a good grid position for the race.

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1’40.884
2 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’41.109 0.225 / 0.225
3 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1’41.405 0.521 / 0.296
4 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’41.421 0.537 / 0.016
5 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 1’41.623 0.739 / 0.202
6 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’41.664 0.780 / 0.041
7 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’41.683 0.799 / 0.019
8 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’41.722 0.838 / 0.039
9 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’41.992 1.108 / 0.270
10 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’42.147 1.263 / 0.155
11 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’42.268 1.384 / 0.121
12 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’42.368 1.484 / 0.100
13 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’42.600 1.716 / 0.232
14 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’42.696 1.812 / 0.096
15 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’42.790 1.906 / 0.094
16 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’42.874 1.990 / 0.084
17 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’42.987 2.103 / 0.113

It seems that the injury-through-motocross bug doesn’t only affect the riders this season. Now Suzuki team manager Paul Denning has become the latest victim, suffering a broken leg and bruises to his ankle and foot as well. As he’s still in the Dorchester hospital he won’t be able to be at Indianapolis this weekend, leaving the team without a team manager for the Indy GP, but he should be fit again for the next race at Misano.

The crew of www.alvarobautista.co.uk and www.batifans.com wishes Paul Denning a speedy recovery and we hope to see him back at the track soon.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has headed back across the Atlantic for the second American Grand Prix of the season this time at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Following a positive post-race test at Brno, both Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista are eager to get back on-track and carry on with the improvements they found at the Czech Republic circuit.

This will be the third time that MotoGP has visited Indianapolis and Capirossi will certainly looking to improve on his results there, that has seen him score a personal best of seventh place at the 4,216m track in 2009. Bautista has a podium position to show from his only race at the circuit. He finished third last year after the 250cc class race was cancelled in 2008 due to a hurricane hitting the Indianapolis area.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway or ‘The Brickyard’, as it is also known, was built in 1909 and has become one of the most famous sporting venues in the world since its inception. The vast race-track has a permanent seating capacity of over 250,000, with the facility to raise that to over 400,000 for the ‘Indy 500’ and the ‘Brickyard 400’, both of which are major sporting events on the American calendar and feature IndyCar and NASCAR respectively. On the grounds of the circuit are also the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum and the Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort, making this impressive venue even more amazing.

Rizla Suzuki takes to the track on Friday 27th August for the first of two free practice sessions, the second scheduled for the following morning. Saturday afternoon sees an hour of qualifying for all riders to establish their grid positions in readiness for Sunday’s 28-lap race that gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (19.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista:
“I’m still a bit stiff from my crash at Brno, but I have rested and let the injury heal properly so I will be ready for Indianapolis. I really need to finish a whole weekend and get a full practice, qualifying and race in my account. It seems a long time since I crossed the finish line and I am positive about visiting America and making that happen. We made some steps at the Brno test, but we still need to work on those at Indianapolis – and the races that follow – to find out what the true potential of the bike is. That is something we are determined to do and to keep on learning as much as possible about all things to do with the GSV-R and how it behaves on different tracks and in varying conditions and also about myself and how I can ride it to get the best from it.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Rizla Suzuki completed most of its full test programme and acquired a large amount of data from Monday’s test at the Brno circuit before rain brought the day’s proceedings to a premature end.

Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista were joined at the 5,403m Czech Republic track by Alstare Suzuki World Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli, who was called up to provide cover for the test if Bautista was unable to participate following his huge crash in Saturday’s practice.

Capirossi and Bautista were able to test many new and revised parts for the Suzuki GSV-R including two new chassis, new Ohlins forks and updated engine management programmes. Guintoli was able to complete three runs to get some data for his riding style early in the morning. The talented Frenchman was then scheduled to do a longer test run in the afternoon, but the rain intervened and ruined any chance he had of assisting with further evaluation of the GSV-R.

Rizla Suzuki will now assess the information from the test and hopefully be able to make some important steps and decisive changes in-time for the next round of the season at Indianapolis in America on Sunday 29th August. Guintoli will next be in WSB action on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 at Nurburgring in Germany on Sunday 5th September.

Álvaro Bautista:
“The test was very short for me, because I felt a lot worse than I did on Sunday during the race. Today we wanted to do a full comparison of two different chassis and we were able to at least do that. I noticed an improvement in the exit of the corner with the new one, the bike had more stability. We still need to test it further and find out what the true potential is, but overall it was a good test and hopefully with what we found we can make a big difference.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

After the Czech GP on Sunday the highly anticipated post-race test took place at Brno yesterday. It is the last official test for the MotoGP teams this season and with Suzuki currently struggling with their performance, they had a lot of new parts and configurations to test in order to try and catch up with the other manufacturers for the rest of the season.
Following his horrifying crash in Saturday morning’s free practice session, Alvaro didn’t ride his bike much during the test. Instead the team brought current World Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli on board who shared the bike and the workload with Alvaro. Guintoli has extensive experience in the MotoGP championship and did his best to help the team get all the scheduled work done. Alvaro only rode 24 laps in the morning session – the least laps of all riders – and didn’t go out again for the afternoon session, to further recover from the back injuries he sustained.
The afternoon session was also cut short by rain, forcing all riders back into the pits and ending the day about three hours early. Not the best conditions for Suzuki to test everything they brought to Brno. New parts and adjustments they tested included a new fairing, a brandnew and a modified chassis, different forks, an aerodynamics package and some electronics changes. Due to Alvaro being injured most of the work again fell back on his teammate Loris Capirossi.

Pedrosa and Simoncelli were the only crashers during the test, both walking away unhurt, and Randy De Puniet sat the day out to give his leg some rest and not having any new parts to test anyway.

The fastest laptime of the day:

Pos Rider Bike Time Diff
1 Jorge LORENZO YAMAHA 1’56.269
2 Casey STONER DUCATI 1’56.844 0.575
3 Dani PEDROSA HONDA TEST 1’56.944 0.675
4 Valentino ROSSI YAMAHA 1’57.129 0.860
5 Dani PEDROSA HONDA 1’57.424 1.155
6 Colin EDWARDS YAMAHA 1’57.512 1.243
7 Andrea DOVIZIOSO HONDA 1’57.691 1.422
8 Loris CAPIROSSI SUZUKI 1’57.700 1.431
9 Ben SPIES YAMAHA 1’57.753 1.484
10 Nicky HAYDEN DUCATI 1’57.991 1.722
11 Hector BARBERA DUCATI 1’58.017 1.748
12 Marco MELANDRI HONDA 1’58.070 1.801
13 Marco SIMONCELLI HONDA 1’58.160 1.891
14 Aleix ESPARGARO DUCATI 1’58.612 2.343
15 Hiroshi AOYAMA HONDA 1’58.830 2.561
16 Mika KALLIO DUCATI 1’58.926 2.657
17 Alvaro Bautista SUZUKI 1’59.454 3.185
18 Sylvain Guintoli SUZUKI 2’01.474 5.205

Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista both crashed out of today’s Czech Republic Grand Prix at either end of the 22-lap race with both riders able to walk away uninjured from their respective incidents.

Bautista battled heroically for the whole 22-laps as he fought against the pain caused by yesterday’s huge high-side and the other riders on track. Despite starting from the back of the grid he caught the battle for eighth position before the half-way point of the race. Bautista was fighting with the group and as the last lap arrived he was close enough to challenge Marco Simoncelli. He made a strong passing manoeuvre in the last corner and although he got past Simoncelli he lost the front of the bike and also slid into the gravel – as Capirossi had done earlier. Bautista was visibly disappointed with the outcome of the race after such a brave effort had proved fruitless in the end.

Today’s Brno Grand Prix was watched by nearly 150,000 people at trackside and they witnessed Jorge Lorenzo provide another commanding performance on his Yamaha to win his seventh race of the season and strengthen his grip at the top of the championship.

Rizla Suzuki will remain at Brno for a full day’s testing tomorrow as they try to unlock the potential of the Suzuki GSV-R and put today’s frustrations behind them. The next round of the MotoGP World Championship will require another crossing of the Atlantic, as the field prepares to line-up for the Indianapolis Grand Prix in America on Sunday 29th August.

Álvaro Bautista:
“The crash was a big disappointment for me as I went to overtake Simoncelli, because at the beginning of race I didn’t know what my condition would be at the end and I was pleased that I felt strong enough to make the move. The first few laps were difficult because I’d only had about 40 minutes of dry practice all weekend and needed to get my reference points sorted out. The pain was horrible but I was able to start to push and in the middle of the race I was in the group challenging for eighth position, which was not too bad. After about half of the race my body started to tire and although I was pushing to the maximum, when I came up to other riders it was difficult to pass because I was at my physical limit. I would have liked to finish this race as this is now three consecutive races that I have failed to complete. The rest of the race was not too bad and compared to other riders my rhythm was good. I hope for the next race in America to make a complete weekend and continue with my progression in MotoGP.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“In sport you have to make your own luck, but it really feels like we need to go to a Church and have a word with someone who can maybe help us out a little bit! Absolutely nothing seemed to go right here at Brno and the most disappointing thing is that without question the bike and riders had the capability to challenge for a top-six position. Álvaro made a heroic effort, we have to remember that he was in great discomfort and had only spent about 45 minutes practice time in the dry compared to everyone else’s three hours. Once he found his rhythm the bike was working well, his speed was good and he’d clawed his way into contention for an excellent finish. His commitment to catching and passing Simoncelli on the last lap was obvious and he nearly made it happen, but asked a bit too much of the front tyre in the final left. It was extremely disappointing, but we have to respect a superb effort.
“The result today doesn’t reflect anywhere near our potential and we’re going to work positively at the test tomorrow and set our sights on realising the true capability of the GSV-R, Loris and Álvaro for the rest of the season.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Alvaro crashed out of the Czech GP at Brno today in the last corner after he had just passed Simoncelli for 11th place. But despite that crash he did a great race until that point. Without having qualified yesterday he started the race from last position on the grid and fell back about two seconds in the early stages. But after only a few laps he started to constantly go laptimes quicker than everyone in front of him up to 8th position. And this is after having only one full practice session overall and while riding in pain. With several other riders crashing out he’d still been able to rake in some points while going calmly at the back of the field, but instead he decided to fight for the Top 10 positions. He passed several riders on his way up to 12th positions and had Simoncelli, who was going slower than everyone behind him for most of the time, firmly in his sight in the last lap. He passed him in the last lap for 11th, but then crashed out. He doesn’t seem to have aggravated his injuries in the crash, he got up immediately afterwards and was more angry with himself than anything else and he should be okay for Indianapolis in two weeks time.

In any case, despite the final result it’s been a very spirited race by Alvaro and a joy to watch his progress.

Pos. Rider Team Km/h Time/Gap
1 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 164.4 43’22.638
2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 164.1 +5.494
3 Casey STONER Ducati Team 163.7 +11.426
4 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 163.6 +13.723
5 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 163.3 +17.930
6 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 162.7 +26.815
7 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 162.3 +33.396
8 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 162.0 +39.406
9 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 162.0 +39.639
10 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 161.9 +40.893
11 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 161.8 +42.032
12 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 161.5 +47.091
13 Alex DE ANGELIS Interwetten Honda MotoGP 161.2 +51.368

Not Classified
Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 161.8 1 Lap
Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 160.9 15 Laps
Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 149.7 16 Laps
Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 151.5 21 Laps