Rizla Suzuki‘s Ãlvaro Bautista has completed his rapid comeback to the grid 44 days after breaking his leg in Qatar, with a hard fought 13th place finish in the Portuguese Grand Prix. Bautista had a good start off the grid in 15th but got bogged down when Karel Abraham fell off his Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati infront of him.
As he had lost too much time avoiding the ailing Ducati, Bautista spent the rest of the race in a lonely 13th, but in doing so kept a consistent pace that would have seen him in the top 10.
“I have some mixed emotions today.” said Ãlvaro. “I am happy because I made the target of finishing the race, but after a decent start and getting in to a good position early on, I am really disappointed that I had to run off the track because Abraham crashed in front of me. I tried to take a different line, but I had to go into the gravel and I lost too much time from the main group. I did the rest of the race alone and ok, we finished, but I would have liked to have battled with other riders. I think it was possible to fight with Toni, Loris and Randy today – or maybe even better!”
He continued, “The first target was to finish the race, so we have to be happy about that and now I have 14 days to improve the strength and power in my leg and go to Le Mans in a much better condition than I came here. My body and my mind are now more prepared for racing, so I am really looking forward to the next race”
Bautista finished, “I want to say a big thank-you to all the team and to everyone that supported me during the last month. If I can make this effort to be here and finish this race, part of what I did was because all of them believed in me all the time. I also want to say a very Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums in Spain, especially my own!”
