Alvaro Bautista feels honoured taking Marco Simoncelli’s place in Honda – MotoGP news
The Spanish MotoGP rider, Alvaro Bautista took an important decision to move ahead with Honda in the premier class racing.
He will be riding Honda RC213V in the 2012 MotoGP season.
While looking back at his Suzuki era, Bautista was pleased to take the honour for late Marco Simoncelli’s place in San Carlo Honda Gresini team.
The former Rizla Suzuki rider spent his initial two seasons with the Suzuki factory team. In his rookie season, he was teamed up with Loris Capirossi.
While running into his 2011 season, Bautista was left as a sole representative for the Japanese team. Unfortunately, he had a bad season start with a fall in Qatar.
Bautista spoke in an interview with Europa Press and said, “It's been a tough year. I did not start as expected with the fall in Qatar. Then I needed to get my confidence back. Mid season everything fell into place, I went on with enthusiasm and confidence,
taking small steps forward to make the bike more competitive.”
The Spanish rider was sidelined for season’s initial two races, while recovering from his broken femur. He made his return in the Portuguese GP.
Prior to his return at Jerez, another former Suzuki rider, John Hopkins was called as a substitute rider for Bautista for the Jerez MotoGP event.
The Spaniard added, “In practice I was usually around sixth and seventh and I made a couple of second row starts. We lacked luck in the race, we have missed opportunities to end the year with good results. But we must be satisfied.”
Batista made stunning improvements during the 2011 MotoGP season. He was able to rank his Suzuki GSV-R in the top five slots.
During the Silverstone event, he was able to finish at fifth place, claiming his career best finish. The British GP was held under wet conditions and it proved his strong racing potential.
At Indianapolis and Motorland Aragon, he claimed a sixth place finish that assured his progress with the team and improved pace for GSV-R.
Coming to the third last round of the season at Phillip Island, he scored a third place on the grid for the Australian GP start. Unluckily, he was only able to finish three races out of last eight starts in the season.
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