Bautista lines up seventh in Australia, confident of race pace

There was little change from their free practice positions for Team San Carlo Honda Gresini riders Alvaro Bautista and Michele Pirro today as they qualified on the third and fifth row of the grid for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. Michele finished the session fourteenth fastest, seven places behind his team-mate Alvaro, who has a good race pace and is hopeful of gaining positions when the lights go out tomorrow afternoon. Michele, meanwhile, will be aiming to maintain his position as the third CRT on the grid and in the current championship standings with two races to go.

Alvaro Bautista (7th 1’ 31” 490)
“We continued to work on the setting of the bike this morning without making major improvements from yesterday. In the afternoon we did some laps on used tyres and the pace was decent. On new tyres we were able to go a little faster and we were hoping to make at least a position up on the last outing and get on the second row but it started to rain and I had to settle for sixth place. Anyway I am confident because my race pace is good and apart from Stoner, who is on another planet, and maybe Lorenzo and Pedrosa who are also very fast we can match the others and fight for fourth or fifth place again. The start will be important then after that we’ll see!”

Source: Gresini Racing