Álvaro Bautista finishes eighth at MotoGP Misano

Bautista, who after qualifying eighth and seeing that he had greater potential, believed he could pull off a surprise this weekend, but in the end the change in temperature conditions didn’t allow it.

He started from eighth position and lost a couple of places on the first lap; the threat of rain during the first laps made him hold back with great caution.

He began riding in a group but was no longer tucked in with the leading group. After recovering two seconds, he overtook Colin Edwards on lap seventeen, which was the moment he reached the eighth position he would finish the race with. That said, the overtake on Colin is one to keep in memory.

He thought about pushing hard to catch the group ahead of him, but it wasn’t possible and he had to settle for what he had.

Beyond the sporting side, the highlight was the new fairing he showed off at Misano, with chrome paint chosen to highlight the new launch of Rizla “Micron” rolling papers, his main sponsor.

Alvaro Bautista (#19) (8th)

It’s certainly not the result we were hoping for after qualifying, but on the first lap I didn’t have the necessary confidence because of the rain – which wasn’t much – and I didn’t feel I could open the throttle fully. That’s where I lost distance to the leaders.

By the time I got into my rhythm they were already far ahead. Eighth isn’t bad, but we expected more. In the last few races we’ve worked well, but we must keep improving in qualifying and getting closer to the best, and then make good starts and better opening laps.

Thanks to the team for their work and to Rizla for their support and the new design. The bike was beautiful today, and we expected more than eighth, but we trust we can do better in the next races.

Paul Denning (Team Director, Rizla Suzuki MotoGP)

A couple of months ago an eighth place would have pleased us, and now that our level is higher we don’t like the result. If we had had the same conditions as yesterday during qualifying, with the track 10º hotter, we could have aimed for fourth place. But within a couple of laps we were already behind, and so reaching our real potential is impossible.

We were able to put in a dignified race, and that’s not bad. On the other hand, we really enjoyed supporting Rizla in launching their new product ‘Micron’ in Italy this weekend. Now we’re already looking ahead to another home race for Álvaro, in Aragón in two weeks. Our attitude is positive.