Rizla Suzuki is on its way Stateside for the 12th round of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship which will be held at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway in America.

Álvaro Bautista will be looking to continue with the huge potential that has been shown by him and the Suzuki GSV-R is recent races. He looked likely to fight for a top-five finish last time out at Brno, before lady-luck robbed him of the opportunity and he crashed. He is in a determined and focused mood to get a good qualifying position on Saturday to give him a better chance of getting away with the quick group come race-day and show what both he and the Rizla Suzuki are capable of.

Indianapolis will be staging a MotoGP for the fourth time in its illustrious history when the bikes take to the track on Sunday 28th August. The ‘Brickyard’ is more usually associated with Indy Car and NASCAR racing, but the two-wheeled event has quickly become a highlight on the circuit’s calendar. Known as the ‘Brickyard’ due to over three million paving bricks that used to cover the whole surface, now less than a metre of these bricks exist at the start line of 4,216m track. This fascinating symbol to the old days of racing is now simply known as the ‘Yard of Bricks’. The circuit has a permanent seating capacity for more than 250,000 people and a big crowd is expected this weekend when MotoGP rolls into town. The fans will also be entertained by not only the on-track excitement, but many other off-track events, both at the ‘Brickyard’ and in downtown Indianapolis – making this one of the party Grands Prix of the year.

Rizla Suzuki will be rolling out on to ‘Gasoline Alley’ on Friday for two free practice sessions. This will be followed by another practice on Saturday morning and then the all-action qualifying session in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (18.00hrs GMT) when Bautista will be going all-out to add his name to history books of this famous circuit.

Álvaro Bautista: “We have certainly made some big steps with the GSV-R over the last few races, but we still need to work on things at Indianapolis. We need find out what the true potential of the bike is and I need to improve my qualifying session performance. It is difficult to see if we can compete with the guys at the front if I am starting at the back of the grid and I have to use so much time and energy to get up to them. These are things that we are determined to do and if we are successful in them then who knows what the bike and the team are capable of producing. I finished eighth at Indianapolis last year and I know we can do better than that now with the package we have. I will be pushing right from the start and trying to make all the hard work we’ve done in recent races give us a good end result in America.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki

Rizla Suzuki racer Álvaro Bautista produced a battling and mature race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to bring his Suzuki GSV-R home in a respectable eighth place.

Bautista got boxed in at the start and was relegated to 14th at the end of the first lap; he quickly got on the pace and was able to pass some riders with relative ease. He caught up with Marco Simoncelli at half-distance and had a tremendous battle with the Italian for the rest of the race. Bautista tried a number of times to overtake his old adversary, but was unable to find the opportunity to get past – mainly due to the condition of the Indianapolis circuit in the places where Bautista was sure he could make a move and his determination to get to the finish line and complete the race.

Today’s race was held in very warm conditions with air temperatures getting up to 35ºC and track surfaces hitting 56ºC. A crowd of 62,794 saw Dani Pedrosa win the race with home favourite and pole setter Ben Spies in second, World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo was third.

Rizla Suzuki now heads across the Atlantic for the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix to be staged at Misano in Italy next weekend on Sunday 5th September.

Álvaro Bautista:
“It was a hard and very difficult race because it was so hot that you could feel the heat coming from the bike and from the ground. It made it a very physical race, but that was also a good test for me to see how my body had healed and at the end I still felt strong. I lost a few places at the start, but I was able to overtake other riders very quickly and I got behind Kallio and decided to follow him because he had a good rhythm and I didn’t want to use all my energy with a long race ahead. We caught up to Simoncelli and I knew I was faster than Kallio so it was better to pass him and catch Simoncelli on my own. I saw two points on the track where I could then get past Simoncelli, but they were both very risky because they were very bumpy. I tried to get past in turn 10 but it was just too dangerous to go past because it was so bumpy and I wanted to finish the race – as it had been a long time since I’d done that. I finished in the top 10 and we did a good job through the whole weekend. This morning we made a big change in the gearbox and that worked very well for me. I am happy with the weekend and the team worked fantastic, we have another race next week and I’m looking forward to that already.”

Tom O’Kane – Álvaro Bautista’s Crew Chief:
“Álvaro rode a really solid race today, at a track that hasn’t been very good to us in the past, so that is a very promising thing to take forward as we move to tracks where our bike has gone better in the past. We are really happy to get a finish and get through a whole race weekend without the dramas that we have had recently. Álvaro made a big change to his gearbox this morning in the warm-up and we were able to see an improvement in his lap-times immediately – especially in the second sector of the lap – and he adapted to the different pattern of the box very quickly and that also showed in the race. Overall he rode a good race and had a tough battle with Simoncelli, it’s neither here-nor-there whether he got past him or not, but it was very important to get into the top-10 and for him to come away from here with a lot more confidence in his own ability and that of the bike.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

A solid race by Alvaro who finished in 8th position by a whisker.
He began the race again with a mediocre start, losing a couple positions in the first laps and having to work his way back up. But he soon caught up with the guys in front, going as fast as the riders up to 8th and 9th position. With crashes of Marco Melandri and Casey Stoner everyone moved up a few places and Bati soon found himself fighting with Mika Kallio for 8th place. He spent several laps behind the Finnish rider to catch up with Simoncelli in front of them who was already about two seconds ahead, but constantly going slower. Finally Bati passed Kallio and took on the final pursuit on his own, quickly reeling Simoncelli in and then sticking to his rear wheel with still half the race to go. Alvaro clearly had the better pace and was close enough to pass, but after the frustrating ends to the last three races he instead bided his time, probably looking to attack in the final lap. In the end he didn’t take any risks and rather brought the 8th place home safely, his second best finish this season after 5th place at Catalunya. Well done, Bati.

Pos. Rider Team Time/Gap
1 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 47’31.615
2 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +3.575
3 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team +6.812
4 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team +12.633
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team +21.885
6 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team +35.138
7 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini +36.740
8 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +36.825
9 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team +44.905
10 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar +51.368
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +55.386
12 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP +57.903
13 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP +1’04.139

Not Classified
Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 10 Laps
Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 12 Laps
Casey STONER Ducati Team 21 Laps
Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 26 Laps

Slowly but surely Alvaro is getting more used to the Indianapolis circuit and subsequently he also moves further up the order and closes the gap to the front. He finished today’s warm up session 10th fastest, just over a second behind the fastest rider and seems to be constantly improving.

The weather conditions at Indy are warm and sunny, perfect for a great day of racing.

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’40.482
2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’40.708 0.226 / 0.226
3 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’40.711 0.229 / 0.003
4 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1’40.804 0.322 / 0.093
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’40.883 0.401 / 0.079
6 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 1’40.901 0.419 / 0.018
7 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1’41.012 0.530 / 0.111
8 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’41.261 0.779 / 0.249
9 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’41.303 0.821 / 0.042
10 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’41.545 1.063 / 0.242
11 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’41.635 1.153 / 0.090
12 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’41.670 1.188 / 0.035
13 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’41.766 1.284 / 0.096
14 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’41.820 1.338 / 0.054
15 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’41.973 1.491 / 0.153
16 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’42.016 1.534 / 0.043
17 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’42.509 2.027 / 0.493

Rizla Suzuki racers Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista will start tomorrow’s Indianapolis Grand Prix alongside each other on the fourth row of the grid.

Capirossi (P10, 1’41.512, 25 laps) will begin tomorrow’s 28 lap race from the front of row four, with team-mate Bautista (P11, 1’4.534, 29 laps) next to him. The pair both made steps to improve their respective Suzuki GSV-Rs around the 4,216m American circuit and they are confident that these measures will help them in tomorrow’s race. Capirossi is still looking to unlock some more of the potential of his GSV-R and will probably make a couple of changes in tomorrow’s warm-up ahead of the race, whilst Bautista made big advances with learning the circuit on a MotoGP machine and is confident that he can improve even more during the race.

Today’s qualifying was again held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures again over 50ºC. Ben Spies took his first ever MotoGP pole position, as he rode his satellite Yamaha to the front of the grid ahead of World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo in second.

Tomorrow’s event is the 11th race of the season and the action gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (19.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista:
“We had a good qualifying and I was able to follow a pack that included Rossi, Dovizioso and Pedrosa and I didn’t lose too much time to them on every lap, so that was good for me as I needed to get an idea of how I was doing in comparison to other riders around here. After that I tried to push myself a bit more, but I still had a bit of a problem with rear grip and it made things a bit hard. We made some small changes to the bike and improved things quite a bit. At the end I tried to follow someone to get more reference points because they are so important here, but there was nobody to follow so I had to work alone and set my times by myself. I think our set-up for the race is not too bad and if I get a good start tomorrow and get into the group in front I can stay with them.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Alvaro will start tomorrow’s race from 11th position on the grid after an eventful session.
He started the qualifying well, sitting in 6th place for quite some time, but again didn’t manage to improve enough in the second half of the session to hold the position when everyone else started with softer tyres. However, compared to FP2 he improved his laptime yet again by over a second and he posted some very regular laptimes which is promising for tomorrow’s race. Overall the laptimes are again very close, so we hope there’ll be some close racing at the Indy GP.

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’40.105
2 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’40.325 0.220 / 0.220
3 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1’40.336 0.231 / 0.011
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’40.559 0.454 / 0.223
5 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’40.637 0.532 / 0.078
6 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1’40.664 0.559 / 0.027
7 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 1’41.005 0.900 / 0.341
8 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’41.092 0.987 / 0.087
9 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’41.232 1.127 / 0.140
10 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’41.512 1.407 / 0.280
11 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’41.534 1.429 / 0.022
12 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’41.623 1.518 / 0.089
13 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’41.631 1.526 / 0.008
14 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’41.649 1.544 / 0.018
15 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’41.856 1.751 / 0.207
16 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’41.896 1.791 / 0.040
17 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’41.923 1.818 / 0.027

After spending the first day at Indy to get used to the track on a MotoGP bike and finding the reference points, Alvaro made good use of that knowledge at the start of the second practice, going a second quicker than yesterday after only six laps. Unfortunately his progress then stagnated again in the second half of the session, just as it did yesterday in FP1. He did finish the practice a bit higher up the order in 12th position though while also closing the gap to the fastest guys.
Alvaro and the team will be hoping to find a little more speed for the qualifying later today to make up a few more spots on the grid.

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1’40.331
2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’40.389 0.058 / 0.058
3 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1’40.432 0.101 / 0.043
4 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1’40.642 0.311 / 0.210
5 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1’40.878 0.547 / 0.236
6 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’41.061 0.730 / 0.183
7 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’41.136 0.805 / 0.075
8 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’41.192 0.861 / 0.056
9 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 1’41.232 0.901 / 0.040
10 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1’41.354 1.023 / 0.122
11 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1’41.390 1.059 / 0.036
12 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’41.715 1.384 / 0.325
13 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’41.783 1.452 / 0.068
14 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1’41.876 1.545 / 0.093
15 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1’41.922 1.591 / 0.046
16 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’41.975 1.644 / 0.053
17 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1’42.517 2.186 / 0.542

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