Heavy rainfall during the MotoGP race at Sepang today saw the red flags produced with seven laps remaining and eventually the decision came from Race Direction to call a result with full points awarded. The race got underway on a wet track, with steady raining falling, following earlier downpours that had seen the Moto2 race delayed due to a flooded track. About halfway through the 20-lap MotoGP race the rain intensified, triggering a rash of crashes.
Alvaro Bautista was lapping in sixth place when the conditions were deemed unsafe, a positive result after a difficult weekend.
Alvaro Bautista (6th) “Racing in these conditions is always a lottery. It was raining at the start, but not too much and I was able to ride well with confidence in the bike. The only problem was under braking and I had trouble trying to control the bike over the bumps. I was close to crashing, but I tried to adapt as best I could. Towards the end the track was like a river and I was aquaplaning down the straight. It was the right call to stop the race. I am happy, because we improved our feeling with the bike in the wet, but we still need to work on our chatter problems.”
Fausto Gresini “Alvaro had a great race in the wet conditions seeing that he didn’t have any wet set-up time in practice. Normally we have problems in the wet and we weren’t in perfect shape here at Sepang either, but we have still come away with a good result and we have achieved our objective here, which was to consolidate fifth place in the championship.”
Source: Gresini Racing, Honda Pro Racing
