MotoGP – Laguna Seca – Capirossi at the finish line, Bautista falls

Today at Laguna Seca both Rizla Suzuki riders Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista had to face a difficult race, but for different reasons. Capirossi earned tenth place aboard his Rizla Suzuki, although he was initially given ninth place. However, video evidence showed that Mika Kallio crossed the finish line 0.001 of a second before Capirossi. After a bad first phase of the race, the Italian driver fought until the end to maintain his position but unfortunately lost ninth place in the last meters of the race.

Bautista was instead the victim of another accident: at the start of the third lap Aleix Espargaro involved him in a fall and put him off the track. Before Espargaro ended his race for the second weekend in a row, Bautista had already found a good rhythm and had already overtaken a couple of riders.

A crowd of more than 51.000 spectators attended the Laguna Seca Grand Prix which saw Jorge Lorenzo's sixth victory of the season; the Spaniard thus continues to consolidate his leadership in the championship.

The entire MotoGP paddock will now have a mid-season break, before leaving for the next round of the championship which will be held in Brno, Czech Republic, on Sunday 15 August.

Loris Capirossi:

“I think we did our best today because our pace was about half a second slower than qualifying. I tried different trajectories in each of the 32 laps, to be able to improve the times in the third sector, but I had problems on the front. The race was quite tough and at the end there was also a duel with Kallio and Espargaro. On the last lap I tried to close to maintain my position, but it seems that Kallio overtook me right at the finish line. I thought I made it, but the video shows that he passed me. There is no difference between ninth and tenth, but it's still not good, we have to improve!”

Alvaro Bautista:

“I started badly because the bike wheelied too much and I lost some positions, but in the first two laps the feeling with the bike was good; I managed to overtake some riders. I was going well when at the beginning of the third lap I overtook Espargaro at the first corner, I was following the normal line to enter the second corner, i.e. two consecutive corners, and I found him in the middle, he hit me and I crashed. It's a real disappointment because I was going well, I had already made a couple of overtakings with ease. It was a bad debut in Laguna, but we will take advantage of the work done here in the next races.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:

“Obviously Álvaro going off the track so early, involved in the accident with Espargaro, was a real disappointment, especially given the potential demonstrated over the weekend. There are two consecutive Grands Prix that end with Bautista out through no fault of his own, let's just hope that luck turns soon.

“Loris' start wasn't bad, but the first two laps didn't go as planned and a gap was created with the riders in front. Afterwards he had to fight hard and it was a shame to lose ninth place right at the finish line. The Brno circuit is one of Loris's favorites and is a track that Suzuki has done well at in the past, so we can't wait to get out on track for the race and the important test on the following Monday.”

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP