The rider of the Ángel Nieto team returned to his usual dynamic after his blank result in Aragon and once again completed an excellent weekend, even if he knows that he is soon reaching the end of the potential of his machine.
Alvaro Bautista had ended a series of seven top 10s by crashing at the Aragon Grand Prix. He therefore got back to work on his arrival in Thailand, and carried out very good tests.
After finishing in a shy sixteenth place in FP1, he increased his pace from FP2 onwards and managed to move straight into Q2 thanks to his seventh place as well as his tenth position in FP3. Tenth again in FP4, he then qualified in twelfth position.
Starting from the fourth row, he got off to a good start but was hampered by his fight with Franco Morbidelli. Despite this, he was able to set his pace to once again finish in the top 10, in eighth place. An excellent result for the overseas tour: “We leave Thailand with an eighth place, just six seconds behind first and that's the most important thing. We lost a lot of time during the first laps because we touched several times with Morbidelli and I lost ground. Throughout the race we rode competitive times. We will see if we can continue like this in the next races. We made progress in Aragon and here, refining the focus, but we don't have many more cards to play. Being in the top 10 is already an excellent result. We will see at the next Grands Prix what we can achieve. »
Regularly in Q2 and in the top 10 in the race, the Spanish rider wants to show his potential, even if he will leave MotoGP next season for Superbike.
Thai Grand Prix, Buriram, MotoGP J.3: Ranking.
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ Honda 39'55.722
2 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati +0.115
3 25 Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha +0.270
4 46 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha +1.564
5 5 Johann ZARCO Yamaha +2.747
6 42 Alex RINS Suzuki +3.023
7 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda +6.520
8 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Ducati +6.691
9 9 Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati +9.944
10 43 Jack MILLER Ducati +11.077
11 29 Andrea IANNONE Suzuki +15.488
12 55 Hafizh SYAHRIN Yamaha +17.691
13 41 Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia +21.413
14 21 Franco MORBIDELLI Honda +22.802
15 38 Bradley SMITH KTM +23.628
16 45 Scott REDDING Aprilia +23.804
17 17 Karel ABRAHAM Ducati +32.507
18 10 Xavier SIMEON Ducati +37.216
19 81 Jordi TORRES Ducati +39.204
20 12 Thomas LUTHI Honda +39.421
21 44 Pol ESPARGARO KTM +53.388
22 30 Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda 2 Laps
Not Classified
26 Dani PEDROSA Honda 8 Laps
