Rule book stops Bautista short at German GP and leaves team frustrated

Rizla Suzuki racer Loris Capirossi brought his Suzuki GSV-R home in 11th place during today’s German Grand Prix, whilst team-mate Álvaro Bautista was forced to miss the second half of a two-part race following a red flag incident.

Capirossi and Bautista were both battling for top-10 finishes during the first part of the race and the latter had just posted his fastest lap, before Randy de Puniet crashed on lap 10. Capirossi was in close vicinity to the accident but missed the falling rider, however Bautista was not so fortunate and had to take evasive action to avoid de Puniet, but couldn’t avoid the stricken Honda. The race was immediately red flagged due to de Puniet’s injuries and the three crashed motorcycles on the track – Aleix Espargaro was also involved in the incident. Sadly for Bautista and Espargaro they were unable to join the re-start, due to the regulations, and had to sit out the second part of the race.

Today’s incident filled race at Sachsenring was watched by 98,477 fans in warm but overcast conditions. They saw Spaniard Dani Pedrosa win from World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.

Rizla Suzuki now immediately embarks on a transatlantic journey to Laguna Seca in California for the ninth round of the MotoGP World Championship to be held next Sunday.

<blockquote><strong>Álvaro Bautista:</strong>
“It has been a bit of a disaster today. I didn’t start that well and I couldn’t get enough warmth in the right-side of the tyre early on. After the first few laps I managed to get a good rhythm and was able to stay with the group for top-10 positions. After nine laps Randy crashed and I had some riders in front of me and I couldn’t see where his bike was on the track, but when the other riders disappeared I saw the bike in front of me and I couldn’t do anything to avoid it, so I crashed. I then couldn’t get to the box with my bike, so I couldn’t start again. The regulation is the regulation, but in this case maybe there could’ve been an exception because I crashed because of Randy not for something I had done. We must continue learning, like we have done this weekend, because at the moment this is the most important thing.”</blockquote>

<blockquote><strong>Paul Denning – Team Manager:</strong>
“We knew that the potential had at least improved following Barcelona, but today was massively frustrating. In the first part of the race both the guys found a good rhythm and were able to race with the group from sixth place backwards. Álvaro had just set his fastest lap when the accident happened and whilst we respect the rule book completely, I would imagine there will be some careful discussion for the future, because with only 17 bikes on the grid it is definitely a problem for the show to have fit riders and good bikes sat in the pit after an incident like that when they should be out there racing.</blockquote>

<em>Source: <a href=”http://www.rizla-suzuki-motogp.co.uk/news/story.asp?story=20100718160136_SUZUKI”>Rizla Suzuki MotoGP</a></em>