Alvaro Bautista 10th on Jerez grid, still hoping for improvements

Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista will start from the tenth place on the grid of tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez de la Frontera.

In a very hot and sunny day, Alvaro Bautista was able to enter the QP2, which decides the first 12 positions on the grid, setting the second fastest time during Qualifying 1 with 1’39”595; then the Spaniard failed to improve his time in the decisive session, eventually closing it in tenth place with a fastest lap time of 1’39”751.

Alvaro complained about a lack of front grip in corner entry together with a strong rear wheel spin under acceleration: tomorrow, during the warm up, the team will try some big changes to the RC213V set -up ahead of the race, looking for an improvement.

ALVARO BAUTISTA (10th – 1’39″751)
“Unfortunately the situation has not changed compared to yesterday: we tried several different settings, without finding a solution. I have no front grip into the corner, then when I open the throttle the rear wheel starts immediately to spin and therefore I lose a lot of time. Too bad, I was hoping for a better weekend, but this is the reality at the moment. Tomorrow will be a very tough race, especially for me, that I am not comfortable on the bike; our goal, however, doesn’t change: we want to cross the finish line and collect some points. Perhaps tomorrow morning, during the warm up, we could try a last set-up modification, in an effort to improve, although actually all the work carried out so far have not had any effect. Unfortunately we can’t go beyond a certain limit”.

FAUSTO GRESINI
“Undoubtedly, so far we have experienced a difficult weekend, basically due to many rear grip issues encountered by both our riders. We worked hard, but without being able to achieve enough benefits to put our riders in a position to exploit the full potential of their bikes. Tomorrow morning, during the warm up, we will try further changes. It won’t be an easy for anyone, because the temperatures are very high and the tyres slide a lot. We will try to do our best to bring home the best result possible”.

Source: Gresini Racing