Bautista equals season’s best with excellent Sepang showing

Bautista equals season’s best with excellent Sepang showing

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

The Rizla Suzuki rookie scored a fifth placed finished in the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Bautista pleased with 5th

Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista produced the ride of his season so far to take fifth place during a red-hot race in Malaysia on Sunday. Bautista started from eighth on the grid but was forced back to 11th after contact in the second corner, improving to tenth on lap one, a position he held until the middle of the fourth lap when he picked off the next rider as he began his progression through the field.

As the race wore on he got involved in a four-bike battle with Marco Simoncelli, Hiroshi Aoyama and Nicky Hayden, before Bautista made the move of the day and passed Simoncelli and Aoyama at the same time to move into fifth on the 17th lap. Bautista tried to close the gap on fourth placed Ben Spies, but there were not enough laps left and he brought his Rizla Suzuki home for a season equalling best finish.

Álvaro Bautista â€" 5th:

“I am very happy with today’s result because I battled hard with other riders and made the result for myself. The start was not too bad, but on the second corner I had to pick up the bike because some other riders went inside me and I lost some positions. Lap-by-lap I started to overtake other riders and at half distance we caught up to Simoncelli and when I saw that Spies went past him and went away I knew I had to get past Marco and stay with him. I got in a great battle with Simoncelli and I lost some time, and a position, but I had to recover and get past him and Aoyama. When I got into fifth, Spies was quite a way in front and it was difficult to catch him, but I did try and he could have made a mistake at any time that would have helped me get closer. We finished only 15 seconds behind first place and this shows we are improving, so this is very good. I want to say thank you to all my team, Suzuki, Rizla and all the sponsors, because we are putting in a big effort and going forward together. The bike is now better than at the beginning of the year and I have improved so we are looking forward to the last races.”

Rizla Suzuki press release

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