Bautista determined to show strong performance at Le Mans

Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista has been undergoing a comprehensive training programme to improve his fitness in readiness for this weekend’s French Grand Prix.

Bautista made an astonishing comeback at the Portuguese race just six weeks after breaking his femur and is now eager to make up for missing the first two races of 2011. He is determined to perform well at Le Mans after the disappointment of missing last year’s race, following a crash that aggravated an existing injury and forced him to withdraw from the event.

Le Mans is one of the most famous race-tracks in the world and the MotoGP field will race on the Bugatti Circuit, a layout which only shares a short section of the 24-hour track. The 4,185m circuit is a real stop-and-go design which will certainly test Bautista’s physical ability to change direction. The track also has an incredibly fast first corner – taken flat-out in top gear before braking hard for a chicane. Le Mans is approximately 200km/s south-west of Paris and the usual lively crowd that fills the camp-sites around the circuit will add a unique atmosphere to the fourth round of the season.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP takes to the track on Friday 13th May for two free practice sessions, followed by another free session on Saturday morning and an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista: “I have been working hard since the Portuguese Grand Prix and test to improve my fitness and get ready for Le Mans and the rest of the season. It was great to be back on the bike at Estoril, but it showed me that I still have some work to do to be up to race fitness. I plan to go to Le Mans in a better condition than I went to Estoril and in a much better condition than when I arrived in France last year! My target is to get to the finish line this year – because I didn’t manage that in 2010 – and then build on things for the remainder of the season. There are still plenty of races left so we have plenty of time to show what we can do. The few laps that I did in the test were good because they showed that the new chassis is an improvement, so we will use that in France and hopefully it will help us to be more competitive.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP