Alvaro Bautista - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com
Alvaro Bautista blamed the increase in temperatures for his poor qualifying performance at Catalunya today. The Spaniard was second quickest on Friday but could only manage tenth on the grid, something which he feels he should've been able to better.
“Today didn’t go so great. The track conditions changed this afternoon and the extra grip on the rear was at the expense of the feel I had for the front yesterday. We need to look at the data and try to improve things for tomorrow. It was really difficult to ride out there with no feel for the front but I am confident that we’re capable of a much better result tomorrow.”
San Carlo Honda Gresini teammate Michele Pirro qualified sixteenth on his FTR-Honda but he also thought he'd underachieved. The Italian was caught up in the last minute crash involving Karel Abraham and thinks he has the pace to challenge for top-CRT status if he can avoid such danger in the race.
“I think I could have set a faster time today but I lost concentration momentarily on my fast lap when Abraham crashed and that cost me some important time. But I’m sure that in the race we can be closer to the top CRT. We have to make sure we don’t lose touch at the start, when they are able to be a bit faster on the new tyres, and then try to fight. Anyway, today we have confirmed the progress we already made at Le Mans in the dry.”
