Third-fastest laptime and promising start for Bautista despite small crash in morning session
Photo Copyright: Michaela Genz for Vroom Media
A crash for Alvaro his morning was more a result of too much confidence rather than too little and he is already reaping the fruit of the hard work he and the team did in the post-race test at Catalunya last week.
Alvaro Bautista (3rd 2’04”995) “We have made a good start here despite crashing this morning in very tricky conditions. We had the opportunity to try the bike in the wet and that was important for us, because at Le Mans in similar conditions we didn’t have any confidence with the bike. But I felt a lot better with it this morning and I was third before the crash and always among the first positions. Then we made some more small changes to the bike and the confidence got even better and perhaps the crash was just me pushing with a bit too much confidence.
On the dry track in the afternoon we also did a good job, even though track conditions weren’t perfect and the wind was a real problem. Anyway, we managed to improve my confidence with the bike, especially over the bumps, which was a problem because the bike wasn’t absorbing them very well. We gathered a lot of data that I’m sure will be useful tomorrow, when hopefully the weather is a little better.”
Fausto Gresini “Things went well for both Bautista and Pirro and I am very satisfied with the day. The tests after the Barcelona race were important and positive and here is the proof. I am happy for Alvaro, who has been able to step up his performance significantly and Michele is making great progress even though we have so much to do with the bike. Overall I am confident about the weekend. Obviously we’d prefer it not to rain, but I am sure we can be competitive in the wet if it does.”
Source: Honda Gresini Press Release
