Rizla Suzuki‘s Ãlvaro Bautista completed the 2nd test in Sepang today, and proved that the continued development that has gone on within the team, to set a time 0.5 of his quickest time around the Malaysian circuit to place 8th on the timesheet. That despite still suffering the after effects of yesterdays headache which saw him require medical attention, and also a small crash, that he escaped uninjured from early in the session.
“I felt a little better this morning, especially after the Clinica guys gave me a special vitamin drip.” said Ãlvaro
“On my first run I made my best Sepang time so far, but actually I made a couple of mistakes and it really should have been a 2.00 something, after that everybody was using older tyres and the track is getting hotter so it gets less easy to make similar times, but I was happy to be able to make mid 2.01's on old tyres. The test wasn't the best on my side, because my condition wasn't great and I didn't make the long run today, sorry to Suzuki's engineers about that, but we have improved the bike in areas that I really believe will help us in different conditions.”
Commenting on the progress the team has seen, Bautista said, “The Suzuki is now stable, has good feeling and it's fast – I hope we have the same feeling in the colder conditions of Qatar – now I just want to race!”