Alvaro Bautista ends difficult Australian weekend with solid 12th place

With only the warmup held on a dry track, the MotoGP riders took on the Phillip Island race without any references in terms of settings and tyres. This was a difficult situation, especially for Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, which also had to do without the information their rivals had collected during the tests on the Australian circuit at the beginning of the season.

Despite these conditions, Alvaro Bautista’s race was decidedly positive. Both Aprilia riders rode their RS-GP machines into the points zone, just missing the top 10 and succeeding, along with their respective technical teams, in finding the solution for a rather complicated situation.

It was an extremely prudent race for Bautista. In the warmup session the Spaniard had complained of problems with grip and he administered the 27 laps of the Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix well.

Alvaro battled to move up from his sixth row starting position, overtaking first Laverty and then Hernandez, with whom he engaged in a duel for twelfth place that was decided in the Spaniard’s favour during the final lap.

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“This was definitely not an easy weekend. I was never able to practice on the dry except in the warmup this morning, where I did not have a good feeling. It felt like I was riding on ice. At the start, I did not know what to expect. We made a few changes to the bike that improved my confidence, especially with the rear tyre. Toward the end I battled with a few riders, having fun in the duel with Hernandez, despite the fact that I was not at 100% like in recent races. It was a strange weekend for everyone, but we were able to bring home some points anyway”.

Source: Aprilia