Alvaro Bautista was able to complete a run of 17 laps, His Spanish rider of Rizla Suzuki, made a brave effort to participate in Monday's official MotoGP test on Sunday at the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal. Alvaro's was racing for the first time after incurring a fractured femur during a test session before the session opening round in Qatar. in his painful and exhausting condition. He lacked full strength, which hindered him from a longer run. Nevertheless, after all he had faced, Bautista was able to set a decent lap time of 1: 38.850 seconds during his final lap of the day. His best lap time was a whole second faster than his Sunday’s race best lap time. It was even three-tenths better than his Saturday’s qualifying lap time.
The improved pace was a result of the newly designed chassis dropped in the Suzuki GSV-R. This is the same chassis that was put to test in Japan which gave good results and was even better on the race track. The Spaniard’s short lap run was enough to determine the progressive advantage provided by the new chassis and the rider is fully convinced that the team should use this chassis in the fourth round of the 2011 MotoGP season at Le Mans Circuit on May 15.
After the Bautista went on break, the test rider for the Rizla Suzuki team, Nobuatsu Aoki, continued the testing and went on to check the new electronic settings with different strategies. Aoki also tested the improvements of the new chassis and reassured Bautista’s feedback on the Suzuki GSV-R.
Álvaro Bautista, “My leg was really sore today - as I expected - but it was good enough to do four laps at a time and I really wanted to understand this new chassis, so I have to forget the pain and do some work, this is the life of a racer!”
Bautista was pleased with his effort to get on the track, which was a great step forward for the team and rider. He also expressed the improvement in his GSV-R that now it is more agile in the corners, which will help in faster corner exits and early acceleration. The lap’s time was decreased very easily, while tailing on the end of Jorge Lorenzo on Monday’s early test session.
The time was comparable to Lorenzo's but when the riders approached a slow chicane at the end of the track, Lorenzo galloped forwarded and disappeared. Bautista was not able to move the bike in the double bend as fast as it was required, because it was still painful for him to do so.
The position he scored in the race was not acceptional but other achievements were beneficial. Bautista is confident about coming back stronger at the Le Mans Grand Prix.
Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Alvaro-Bautista-of-Rizla-Suzuki-makes-his-comeback-at-Estoril-MotoGP-Update-a66578
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