MotoGP Silverstone: Excellent fifth place for Alvaro Bautista

Rizla Suzuki rider Álvaro Bautista equaled his best MotoGP result today, crossing the finish line in fifth place in a rain-soaked Silverstone. Bautista started well and in the first corners he was already with the leading riders, but the water on the track immediately blurred his vision and at the end of the first lap he found himself in the ninth position from which he started. During the race, despite the very difficult track conditions, the Spaniard set a regular pace, recording his best lap times, with podium times. Bautista managed to gain a few positions thanks to a couple of good overtaking moves and the crashes of some rivals on the slippery track. A few laps from the end of the race the Spaniard riding the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R had earned fifth position which he maintained until the checkered flag, thus deserving of crossing the finish line fifth.

The rain began to fall at Silverstone in the morning, but this did not discourage the 72,544 fans who came, despite the terrible weather conditions, to witness another victory for Casey Stoner on Honda, a result which also earns the Australian the top of the MotoGP World Championship riders' standings.

Rizla Suzuki will now have a weekend off before leaving for Assen, Holland for the Dutch TT which will take place on Saturday 25 June.

Alvaro Bautista:

“I'm very happy today, because we managed to end the weekend with a great result. I want to thank the whole team for all the passion they put into what they do and for helping me get back to top form. Thanks to their help this was the first race since the accident where I was able to feel competitive, so a big thank you to all of them! In the warm-up in the wet I was going fast and the feedback in general was very good, so this afternoon I started off confident. In the race it was important to be able to make a good start: I managed to do it, I think I managed to move into fifth or sixth position, but it was hard because I couldn't see very well, I was getting splashes from the other drivers, so I had to slow down a bit. '. I tried to keep a good pace and during the race I started to run with more confidence. I saw that a couple of riders went off the track due to all that water, but I calmly continued to do my race. I had to calibrate the brakes and gas well because the track conditions were really tough and towards the end I saw Valentino approaching. I pushed a little more and started to close on Nicky, who however reacted to my attacks and managed to maintain the gap, but at that point I had also increased my gap on Valentino and I just wanted to close the race . Fifth place is a good result and now I can't wait for the next race where I will have the same level of confidence and the same good feeling with the bike, if not more!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:

“Really good work by Álvaro and the whole team who provided him with a bike that could give him the confidence to push in today's terrible conditions. In the first laps he was careful, it was easier to make mistakes because there was a lot more water on the track compared to this morning's practice and warm-up. Once he found his rhythm, he started going very fast and smooth, he had found a good balance between speed and… a crash! It's been a difficult start to the season for us, but we're starting to see the potential that Álvaro was showing before the accident and we're looking forward to going to Assen for the next race; we are sure that we will be even stronger there.”

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP