Álvaro Bautista can't take part in FP2 due to a blackout

An electrical blackout was to blame for the second free practice session of the MotoGP category at the Motorland Aragón circuit not being held.

The promising form the Spanish rider had shown in the first free practice session, where he set a time of 1:52.224 after completing 18 laps, was not enough to get the bike properly set up, so there is a lot of work to be done for tomorrow.

Among other things, they wanted to test the performance of the soft compound that Bridgestone brought for this event, in order to choose the direction to follow for the rest of the weekend. This interruption left the riders unable to go out on track, since without electricity, the safety of the riders in the event of an accident could not be guaranteed.

Tomorrow, the MotoGP riders will have 75 minutes of morning practice, in which they will try to make up for the lost time ahead of the afternoon qualifying session.

Álvaro Bautista’s statements:

In the morning we went out on the soft tyres to warm up on the track, and until halfway through the session things were going well for me. I kept on with the same setup, but by the end the tyre was very worn and I couldn’t improve my time.

My rivals had fitted new hard tyres and were faster, so I wasn’t too worried about my position. We need to try the harder one, because the soft is good for 7 or 8 laps and, in these conditions, it loses grip all of a sudden.

We are disappointed with what happened because we had a lot of things to test. We have a new gearbox, and I also wanted to fit hard tyres and a different setup that would give me more rear grip. I know the right decision was made, because Race Direction couldn’t know what was happening around the whole track without power, but it’s frustrating not being able to do your job.

Tomorrow there won’t be much time between sessions to make changes, so I hope we don’t make any mistakes in the morning, because we can’t afford them. I’m confident we can still have a good weekend, and I’m really looking forward to racing on Sunday.

Source and photos | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP