Although it doesn't show on the results sheets, Bautista had a good start to the season. Seventh for example in the Sepang tests (0.03 behind sixth Valentino Rossi and 0.01 ahead of eighth Casey Stoner), he finished fifth in those at Sepang, 0.01 ahead of sixth Vale.
After two average seasons at Aprilia where he finished sixteenth in 2015 then twelfth in 2016, Alvaro signed with Jorge Martinez to ride a Ducati, after riding in MotoGP for two years on Suzuki, three on Honda and therefore two on Aprilia.
To explain the good off-season performances of the 125 World Champion in 2006, it is perhaps useful to recall the allocation of the eight Ducati this year: the 2017 models go to Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci, the 2016s to Scott Redding, Hector Barbera and Alvaro Bautista, and the 2015s to Loris Baz and Karel Abraham. In this context, Bautista benefits from three arguments: his GP16 is fully completed, unlike the GP17 currently under development, Team Aspar was already riding Ducatis last year for Eugene Laverty and Yonny Hernandez (GP14s, but developing good contacts with the factory), and finally the Spanish team has all the data records for all the GP16 Grand Prix circuits used last year by Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso.
Tenth in the Argentine Grand Prix last year on his Aprilia, while his teammate Stefan Bradl obtained his best result there with seventh place, Bautista recently shone in Qatar. While the whole world looked astounded by Johann Zarco's flight, Alvaro quickly escaped from thirteenth place on the starting grid to be in eighth position at the end of the first lap.
He remained in the good group, sixth on the seventh lap behind Valentino Rossi and ahead of Dani Pedrosa. Then he lost the front in the last corner without understanding why.
So let's head to South America, with high hopes: “We have to take the positives from the race in Qatar and head to Argentina with our batteries charged. After a strange weekend to start the season, we can reflect on the fact that I was racing with the front group until my crash – which was strange – and that's what's important.
“I prepared myself physically and mentally. I think we all feel very motivated and ready to make up for the Qatar weekend. Argentina is not a difficult circuit and I think it could be good for the Ducati because it is very fast.
“Our goal remains to work hard from the start and see if we can find some feeling that will allow us to fight for the top five. I know it's difficult, but in Qatar we were close, so our new goal will be the same, and a little more if luck is on our side.
“We are all looking forward to it, myself and the whole team, so we hope that we can work well throughout the weekend, without weather interruption. »
