Bautista improves confidence with bike but “not happy” about 9th on grid

Alvaro Bautista will start from the third row of the grid in tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix after only managing to set the ninth fastest time during this afternoon’s qualifying practice. The Spaniard had shown good pace here, but was unable to put a hot lap together to push himself higher up the order and he will face a battle for a top result in tomorrow’s race.

Bad weather on Friday meant a damp start to free practice, robbing all riders of set-up time at the spectacular Italian circuit, which combines a long and undulating 1.1-km straight with fast looping corners and high-speed to-and-fro chicanes. The forecast was for continued rain, but the second of three days confounded the predictions, with sunshine breaking through a patchy cloud cover.

Alvaro Bautista (9th 1’48”355) “I am not particularly happy with our position on the grid for tomorrow. I felt I could do a better lap than that, because we have improved my confidence with the bike compared to yesterday, but we didn’t manage it. My race pace is good and hopefully if we can get a good start we can stick with the lead group and fight for a top five position at the end.”

Fausto Gresini “It hasn’t been an easy day and for Alvaro to be a second off pole is perhaps a bit too much. Having said that his race pace is decent, so we will keep working to give him a bike that he feels more comfortable with and with a good start in the race I think he can challenge for a top five finish.”

Source: Gresini Racing, HRC