Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista will lead the fourth row of the grid in tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix: the Spaniard set the tenth fastest time in this afternoon’s Qualifying session at Sepang, first clocking the fastest time in Q1 with 2’01”818, then closing in tenth position the Q2 with a time of 2’02”294.

Today’s result marks a slight improvement compared to Bautista’s last few qualifying performances; Alvaro, anyway, struggled again with rear grip aboard his Honda RC213V machine. The rain could come tomorrow to help him in the race: yesterday in fact, in full wet conditions, the Spaniard was feeling pretty good.

His teammate, Scott Redding, will start from the seventeenth position: the English rookie didn’t get the desired result in qualifying, having failed to take advantage of any slipstream, but he remains still confident ahead of the race because he can count on the good pace showed during the FP4. The only question mark for Scott now remains the tyre choice for tomorrow.

ALVARO BAUTISTA (10th - 2'02"294)

“I’m tenth on the grid, but two riders didn’t take part at the Q2 because they were not fit to ride, so for us the position is the same as the last few races; especially my feeling with the bike has not changed here. We are struggling a lot with rear grip; it’s like the rear tyre is not working properly. Once again, we are facing a difficult weekend: we have always the same problems, regardless of the weather conditions. We always try many things, but we never find the solution. Yesterday in full wet conditions my feeling was not so bad, so if tomorrow it’s going to rain, it could be good for us, but with mixed conditions we will be again in trouble”.

SCOTT REDDING (17th - 2'02"874)

“Qualifying was not good: I made a good FP4, with good lap times, so my rivals tried to follow me and it was impossible to get a slipstream. Aoyama went like 8 tenths faster than me because of the slipstream, so I didn’t want to lead the way with other riders behind me. Therefore it was difficult to put some laps together, actually I did only one lap. Again, I’m a little disappointed with the qualifying result, but the FP4 was really good and now we just need to decide which tyre we will use tomorrow. We make better lap times with the soft one, but this track is so greasy and it’s always changing when the temperature drops or rises. The hard tyre could be a good option for more laps, but the softer one could also be good to geta way and then try to make consistent lap times. Anyway, at the moment it’s difficult to make a choice, we will see tomorrow”.

FAUSTO GRESINI

“With regard to Alvaro, the situation has not changed compared to the last races: we have the same rear grip issues that does not allow him to be quick so the position, especially in qualifying, is always more or less the same. Anyway, at least we were able to enter into the Q2 and tomorrow we will start from the beginning of the fourth row, with the tenth time. We always hope to recover some positions in the race and achieve the best possible result. If it’s going to rain, a full wet condition could help us. Scott struggled in qualifying, having been unable to take advantage of the slipstreams in the straights, but he showed a good pace during the 30-minute FP4, so tomorrow a good result and to be the best Open Class Honda RCV1000R is certainly a target within his reach”.

Qualifying Results

1 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team1'59.791
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team1'59.973
3 Jorge Lorenzo Movistar Yamaha MotoGP2'00.203
4 Stefan Bradl LCR Honda MotoGP2'00.472
5 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Team2'00.703
6 Valentino Rossi Movistar Yamaha MotoGP2'00.740
7 Aleix Espargaro NGM Forward Racing2'00.801
8 Cal Crutchlow Ducati Team2'01.119
9 Bradley Smith Monster Yamaha Tech 32'01.263
10 Alvaro Bautista GO&FUN Honda Gresini2'02.294
11 Hiroshi Aoyama Drive M7 Aspar2'10.568
12 Pol Espargaro Monster Yamaha Tech 32'01.885
13 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing2'02.184
14 Nicky Hayden Drive M7 Aspar2'02.330
15 Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing2'02.548
16 Hector Barbera Avintia Blusens2'02.682
17 Scott Redding GO&FUN Honda Gresini2'02.874
18 Alex De Angelis NGM Forward Racing2'03.165
19 Danilo Petrucci IodaRacing Project2'03.874
20 Michael Laverty Paul Bird Motorsport2'04.539
21 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Blusens2'04.784
22 Broc Parkes Paul Bird Motorsport2'05.208
23 Andrea Iannone Pramac Racing2'02.597

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