Bautista springs surprise of the day with strong pace and excellent second position at Catalunya

Alvaro Bautista’s day was as good as the weather in Barcelona today, the Spaniard clocking the second fastest time after quickly establishing a good feel for his bike around the Montmeló circuit.

Five rounds into the season and the progress being made by Alvaro and his hard-working crew is clear to see although today’s result must be seen as a starting point and not an end goal as he looks to further improve his confidence aboard the RC213V.

Alvaro Bautista (2nd 1’ 42” 306) “It has been a really good start and the guys have done a great job. This morning I was struggling for rear traction, but this afternoon it improved a lot. I didn’t have a good feeling on the hard tyre no matter what we changed on the setting, but on the soft tyre my pace was decent. Tomorrow we’ll try to see if we can do full race distance on the soft tyre, because it would be a great option for us if we can. We’ll work in that direction tomorrow and hopefully we’ll get some joy, but for now we’re happy anyway.”

Fausto Gresini “It has been a positive day and it confirms Alvaro’s progress with the RC213V. It is nice to see one of our bikes up at the top of MotoGP again and it makes me very proud. We deserve it because of the professionalism and effort we put into the job, as do San Carlo because they have never lost faith in us. Tomorrow with a few small changes Alvaro can build on this result and improve again. We believe in him.”

Source: Gresini Racing