Bautista walks away unhurt from big crash in wet practice session

Álvaro Bautista (P16, 1’54.410, 15 laps) had a big crash in the wet conditions towards the end of the session. He lost grip from the rear of his GSV-R on a right-hand bend and high-sided quite dramatically. Bautista was thrown across the track, but fortunately he was able to walk away uninjured from the accident.

Today should have seen two practice sessions, but torrential rain this morning left standing water on the track and made it impossible for riders to attempt to tackle the 4,182m circuit. This afternoon saw an improvement in the weather as the rain ceased and the sun managed to make an appearance towards the end of the session. The fastest time of the day was set by new World Champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Rizla Suzuki will have one more free practice session tomorrow morning, followed by qualifying in the afternoon – both of which have been increased to an hour to compensate for the lost time this morning. Sunday’s race is the penultimate event of the season and it gets underway at 13.00hrs local time (13.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista: “Today has been a strange day because it was impossible to ride this morning due to so much water on the track – it would have made it very dangerous out there. This afternoon it was still very wet, but at least we were able to go out. During the session I improved my time step-by-step, but I felt that the bike didn’t quite have enough grip as I entered the corners. I tried to push a bit harder, but the grip stayed the same so I pushed a little bit more each lap and at the end I lost the rear and could do nothing to stop the crash. The important thing is that I am ok and we will see tomorrow if we can improve this problem with grip, because it is making it difficult to go fast.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP