Alvaro Bautista crashes out of Assen GP while battling for fifth

The Sunday that just ended at Assen was a hard one, with the MotoGP race suspended due to heavy rainfall and then restarted with 11 laps to race. There was no lack of excitement for Aprilia, with Bradl and Bautista’s RS-GP machines shining in both parts of the race and with yet another top ten finish in the end.

After the first start on a wet track, the two Aprilia Racing Team Gresini riders maintained focus despite the difficult conditions, further worsened as the rain fell more intensely, conditions that forced Race Direction to suspend the race during lap 14. Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl occupied tenth and eleventh place respectively, positions that they maintained on the second starting grid.

At the restart Alvaro and Stefan picked up where they had left off, riding cautiously on decidedly treacherous asphalt, as the many crashes that began straight away proved. With a good pace and taking advantage of the riders who dropped out, Alvaro moved up to fifth place before Iannone overtook him, in any case without pulling away. On the final lap, when he had completely closed the gap, the Spaniard attempted to take the inside line to move back into fifth place, but he fell victim instead to a crash.

Alvaro Bautista
“In the first part of the race I was riding well, despite the difficulties. At the restart I stayed calm, trying to figure out the track conditions lap after lap and setting my pace. I felt good, even when Iannone overtook me, opening up a little gap, I managed to close it back down. In the last lap I was very close to Andrea. His line went slightly wide on a turn and I moved in to overtake him. Unfortunately I fell, but in those situations the rider’s instinct is always to aim for the best possible result. I’m sorry, first of all for the guys on my team and for Aprilia. Now the only thing to do is to look forward and keep on growing.”

Source – Aprilia Racing