Bautista sees Pedrosa as favourite to challenge Lorenzo for 2011 title

Having more and more MotoGP riders join a social network like Twitter does not only mean funny insights to their free time and the possibilty of direct interaction, it also comes in very handy to keep track of upcoming interviews and events they participate in.
Such was the case again today when Alvaro Bautista, who is already in Malaysia along with the rest of the MotoGP riders, announced that he’ll be live on the radio channel Cadena Ser for an interview in the afternoon. Spanish motorsport journalist Mela Chercoles joined him in the call-in from Malaysia to Spain for the programme Formula Ser.

The questions for the most part focused on Alvaro’s predictions for the 2011 season. Hilarity ensued when the moderator of the programme started by asking Bati “Who is your favourite?” to which the Talaverano quickly replied “Well, myself of course, always!” But sure enough, when inquiring further if he means for the 2011 title, Alvaro conceded that this would be rather difficult indeed, considering the material he has to work with, the fact that he is only in his second MotoGP season this year and also the only rider for Suzuki. Realistically he believes that confirming his results from last year with regular Top 8 finishes and a season end result in that region would be good result for him.

Looking at the main title contenders for 2011, Alvaro mused that “naturally the man to beat is the world champion, Lorenzo. He has the number 1 on the bike, so everyone else will try to take it away from him” and he sees the biggest threat coming from the official Honda team and his fellow countryman Pedrosa: “I think Honda got very good from the middle of last season and without what happened to Pedrosa in Japan he could have been fighting for the title until the final race. Now Honda are at a very high level and have matched, if not topped the Yamaha which was the best bike at the beginning of last year.” And prodded repeatedly about who he thinks will take this season’s MotoGP crown Alvaro mulled it over for a while, but finally replied that “My bet is on Pedrosa, although it will be very difficult. I think he’s been fighting for the title for many years now and if it hadn’t been for the broken collarbone last year I think he could have really challenged Lorenzo. If he has a good start to the season I think he has big chance to fight for it.”

Placing his bet on Pedrosa also rules out Rossi for a surprise title win in his first year with Ducati: “I don’t think Valentino can win the championship this year. Maybe he’ll surprise me and I have to eat my words. He can surely can win races this year, but at this level it’s very difficult to make up a gap of three tenths of a second to the fastest. But Rossi is someone who always does very good work and he’s done a great job this winter, improving in the tests from the first to last day and I’m convinced he’ll keep improving.”

Asked about the rider of the fourth Honda factory bike, Honda Gresini’s Simoncelli, who moved up to MotoGP the same year as Alvaro and posted the fastest laptime in the first test at Sepang, Alvaro said “Well, of course he won a world championship, so he’s not a bad rider. Last year we were both more or less at the same level until I broke my collarbone which upset my rhythm a bit while he was able to continue improving and got better towards the end of the season. And now this year, you can see that he has better material to work with. Surely a test is not the same as a race, but I’m sure he’ll be fighting for the podium this season, including maybe a victory, because of the speed you could see during the winter test.”

Speaking of the Italian, Mela Chercoles chimed in that in his opinion Alvaro’s best moment last year was his epic double pass on Aoyama and Simoncelli in Malaysia, securing him fifth place in the race. Alvaro agreed to the extend that he had been able to improve a lot towards the end of the season when he was finally injury-free and he felt much more at ease with the bike, so it was a lot more fun for him to ride the Suzuki and he was able to show what he can do.

Finally on a side note Alvaro was asked by the moderator how much his physical condition has changed since he changed to MotoGP and Alvaro estimated that he had gained four kilos in muscle weight to adapt to the bigger and heavier machines. Which is not an easy task, considering how long it takes to build up muscle to such an extent.

Alvaro will be back on track with the rest of the MotoGP field from Tuesday to Thursday for the second official test of the 2011 preseason at Sepang.

Source: Cadena Ser Radio
Photo: Twitter Alvaro Bautista