Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista takes positive start at Phillip Island – MotoGP news
Rizla Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautista had a positive start to his racing weekend for the Iveco Australian Grand Prix.
The Spanish rider took his first day at Phillip Island under a bright sunny day. He scored 13th position in the first free practice session and took eighth in the free practice session. Overall, Bautista was 11th for
the first practice day.
Bautista said, “Up until this year this has not been one of the best tracks for the GSV-R and it was quite difficult here for me last year. In the first session this morning I didn't feel a lot of rear grip, but we changed some things for this afternoon
and it made a big difference to the feeling.”
He started the day with a gradual improvement to his pace. Later in the day, he was able to rank up in top ten slots. Compared to his 2010 season’s run, he was a second slower than this time.
Bautista further said, “We also worked on the electronics and altered the mapping for some of the corners to help with rear grip. At the end of the second session with some new tyres there was a big difference than with the used ones.”
He commented on the track’s layout that it has very fast corners. On this track, the tyre conditions have a big effect on the feedback from tarmac.
He claims that he has done his season’s best lap time at Phillip Island and tends to improve a lot more in the next practice session.
With fresh slicks, he can run impressive lap times but for few number of laps. Somehow, the tyre wear is very quick and it makes corner exit very hard. Following the tyre erosion, the traction also reduces which affects lap times severely.
He also added that the team has improves a lot as compared to last season and the Suzuki GSV-R has more pace than ever.
The Suzuki sole rider was content with the first day of practice session. He hopes to improve further for the second day, as he has to recover his lost points from Motegi.
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