Rizla Suzuki’s Àlvaro Bautista struggled in todays rain affected first free practice session. The Spaniard finished the session in 13th place after lacking grip on the soaking wet Dutch track. The lack of grip was similar to the problem he had at the rain affected British Grand Prix.
At the end of the session, the Rizla team had concocted a setup that should have alleviated the issues he was having, however after 2 major oil spills in the Moto2 practice session, and a failed attempt to clear it, the second practice session was canceled, leaving Bautista with an untested setup.
Speaking after the session, Bautista said, “In this morning's wet conditions I had a lot of problems with rear grip and I just didn't have the confidence in the corners to open the gas early enough. We tried another setting in the session, but I didn't have a good feeling with that either.”
He continued, “This afternoon we wanted to test a completely different setting, but after what happened on the track in the Moto2 class it has made this impossible. We have a couple of sessions tomorrow and I hope that I can resolve this problem, because I really need to get the same feedback from the bike as I had at Silverstone in the last race.”
