Alvaro Bautista column, Misano: The sneaky plan didn’t work…
Difficult weekend at Misano. It began with me picking up a stomach virus, then I started and finished the race in eighth. Good position, but I’m not content with that, I want more. The best was the hattrick of victories for Jorge, Marc and Nico. The championships are tightening up…
Greetings. Ciao amicci! How are you? I am taking advantage of the flight from Italy to Spain to write, returning home after two consecutive weeks of racing and I will tell you how the weekend in Misano was, where I arrived with a bit of jetlag from the last race at Indianapolis, but with a lot of motivation after the good result I achieved there.
Happy virus. I didn’t start the weekend very well, on Thursday I felt bad all day, the doctors said it was a stomach virus and I could barely eat anything and didn’t sleep much either. Together with the heat and humidity that meant I was exhausted, in fact on Saturday after practice I had to get an injection with saline solution and vitamins to recover. And for me to get an injection I have to be in very, very bad shape. What I hate most in the world are needles, well no, what I hate most is that they get stuck into me and I had to do it again on Sunday because I had no energy reserves left and the race would be tough in these conditions.
Improvements. During practice on Friday and Saturday I was at a good level, not far from the fourth or fifth in terms of pace and the feeling with the bike wasn’t bad. And that after on Friday one of my engines blew up, but it was the one with the most miles I had. I also used a new swingarm which we had already tested in Brno and I didn’t like it much, but here we changed the setting a little and it convinced me, we took a step forward. In fact, in qualifying I was fourth with 20 minutes to go, with used tyres, and I just needed to make a good lap at the end, but I ran into some traffic and could not improve. But the pace was good.
I wanted heat. For Sunday we did the fairing of the bike in chrome, so that when it reflects the sun it’ll blind the other riders and I can take advantage, but we screwed up! It was cloudy and the sun couldn’t be reflected, so the race did not go as I wanted; well, because of that and because the track temperature was 20 degrees cooler than Saturday, which meant that if I could do 28 laps with the soft tyre in 50°C and most riders use the hard one, then with 30°C everyone used the soft and I would have needed one that is softer. Together with the raindrops which fell at the start that meant I couldn’t push from the first lap like I did in practice and I lost positions and time to the second group, which was where I thought we could be. But anyway, the conditions are what they are and we need to improve so that when are they are good we can go well. In the end, eighth behind all the factory bikes is not a bad result, but I want more.
Spain takes over. The championship gets a little more interesting with the victory of Lorenzo and Stoner in third, although it will be difficult for Jorge to catch up, because he, Dani and Casey are a step above the rest and it will be difficult for another rider to get among them. In Moto2 it was a great fight for the victory, which again was taken by Marquez after demonstrating an amazing maturity on the bike and knowing how to push when he had to. Every time he is getting closer to Bradl and it will be an interesting final of the championship. Right now I see Marc as stronger, but at the moment Bradl is the leader and he has to take risks. And in 125cc I still can not understand Zarco’s actions on the finish straight. I’m glad because it helped Terol to win and increase the gap in the standings, but after going on the home straight in first position, knowing that you have a rider in your slipstream, you can not look back and get up, you tuck in behind the fairing as good as you can and open the throttle all the way. It is a pity for Zarco, because he has been very close to victory several times and still has not achieved it. Congratulations also to Efren Vazquez, let’s see if we see him fighting for the podium in more races.
Until MotorLand. Oops! We’re almost landing already, how fast did that flight to Spain go by, I need to stop as I have to turn off the computer. Now I will spend a week at home – Ah! And remember that next Saturday there will be a party in Talavera of my fanclub. You are all invited. Being with people who love me and who I love will certainly give me strength for the next round at MotorLand, in Alcaniz. I can’t wait to race in front of the Spanish fans. Hopefully I can give you a good result and I hope you enjoy it as much as the Spanish riders enjoy riding in front of you. A big kiss!
Source: AS.com
