Alvaro Bautista back in training for Estoril return

Alvaro Bautista has resumed training and told Suzuki he intends to ride in next weekend’s Estoril clash in Portugal.

The Spanish rider has been able to cycle and swim as part of his recovery from the broken left femur he suffered in a sickening practice crash ahead of the season’s opening round in Qatar last month.

Bautista missed his home race in Jerez earlier this month but has always targeted an Estoril return after American John Hopkins rode his factory GSV-R machine to tenth place in a rain-hit Spanish Grand Prix.

The former 125GP world champion has gained enough strength in his left leg to resume training and he’s confident he will be given the all-clear by doctors in Portugal to compete in the third round of the 2011 MotoGP series.

Bautista will need to pass a medical check in Estoril on Thursday, April 28 and if he is deemed not fit to ride, Suzuki will draft in Japanese test and development rider Nobuatsu Aoki as replacement.

Aoki was to attend the Portuguese race anyway because he will take part in a one-day test session on the Monday after the race.

Hopkins is unable to be on standby to replace Bautista because of his commitments to the Samsung Suzuki British Superbike squad in the second round at Oulton Park.

Speaking to MCN in Jerez earlier this month, Bautista said: “My target is to ride in Estoril. The big problem is I lost many days lying in bed, so now the movement is worse than I thought and the recovery is slower than I expected before the operation. I had some very difficult days in Qatar and after the operation it was very hard for me.”

He revealed gory details about the leg injury he suffered in Qatar and subsequent surgery required in a Doha hospital.

He added: “The problem was they made a big cut and they didn’t close the cut. I had to travel to Spain with a big cut open in my leg, with the muscle outside of the skin and this was very horrible for me.  I didn’t measure exactly but the open cut was more than 30cm. It was closed with 49 stitches. I’m leading the world championship for the number of stitches.”