MotoGP Phillip Island: Alvaro Bautista “Excellent qualifying but I hope they let me use the soft tire in the race tomorrow”

Alvaro Bautista he finished qualifying for the Phillip Island Grand Prix in 4th place, 3 tenths behind Jorge Lorenzo. This time the Spaniard from the Gresini team didn't wait for the race, but started to be glued to Valentino Rossi's exhausts on Saturday and in fact he closed the tests just 66 hundredths behind the Pesaro driver and the front row. Bautista is happy with the feeling he has with the bike, but he is worried about the fact that Bridgestone wants to force all the riders to take to the track tomorrow with hard tires for safety reasons, thus forcing him to give up the soft with which he rides. it is found much better. A flag to flag tender procedure will be adopted for tomorrow's race, in practice, halfway through the race, the riders will be able to decide to return to the pits and start with the second bike if the tires are completely worn out.

“It was a beautiful day on the one hand and a complicated day on the other – said Alvaro Bautista – Nice because we set an excellent time which placed us in the second row in fourth position, a few thousandths from the front row. Complicated because we were forced to use a hard tire during the morning tests in order to be able to verify some safety parameters which for us were still lower than those verified with the soft tyre. Now an important decision will be made oriented towards the flag to flag and our hope is that free choice will still be left regarding the use of the tire given that we did 22 laps with the soft tire and without a shadow of a doubt it transmits to us much more safety. It will be an important decision that I hope will be taken conscientiously because I believe that the safety of us drivers is fundamental and important but above all the sporting aspect will not be distorted."