The Malaysian GP Sprint race practically ended after two laps for Alvaro Bautista. The Aruba.it Racing team rider – who had shown clear progress in the morning FP2, finishing just eight tenths off the fastest time set by Quartararo (Yamaha) – started in 22nd position and in an attempt to overtake Leucona (Honda), was unable to brake his Ducati Desmosedici GP, going off track and therefore losing a lot of time.

Bautista restarted the race to collect important data ahead of the Grand Prix of Malaysia, which will get underway tomorrow at 3pm local time (8am CEST).

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing #19)
“We can say that today was one of the best days for me. First, a technical problem in qualifying didn’t allow me to make the second run, then before the start, I couldn’t engage the front lowering device and I got off to a bad start. I tried to recover straight away but at the last corner on the second lap, also because of the slipstream created by the group, I couldn’t brake hard and went off the track. It’s a real shame because the feeling I had in FP2 was really good and I was convinced I could be much more competitive in the race. Anyway, we are improving in terms of times and feeling, session after session, and that’s why I am confident we can take another step forward tomorrow”.