Rizla Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista took a smooth and careful attitude to riding in tricky conditions this afternoon in the second MotoGP free practice session at Valencia put the Spaniard in to spot while the morning's fastest man Casey Stoner languished down in eighth.
Bautista bagged the fastest time with a few minutes remaining in the session with a lap that just kept a charging Nicky Hayden at bay while the usual suspects, including all the Repsol Hondas were out of the top five.
“Today has been a good day for us because we have had a full wet session to get some practice in those conditions. In this morning’s session I had a good feeling at the start, but as the track became drier it wasn’t as good and I couldn’t ride at the limit," said Bautista.
"The bike moved a lot and was spinning-up all over the track, so it was very difficult. In the second session, after the heavy rain, the track was much wetter and the conditions were a lot worse than this morning for all the riders, so it was essential that you rode smoothly and carefully. We changed some settings in the bike to help me get a confident feeling in the GSV-R and at the end of the session I was able to find a good rhythm.
"We finished first today and although it’s only the second free practice, you cannot improve as much in the wet as you can in the dry, so this is very good for us. I hope that tomorrow we can make some improvements in drying conditions like we had earlier today, but if it is totally dry we still have plenty of work to do to get ready. I am happy with the first day and looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
