Sepang MotoGP: Alvaro Bautista claims surprise fifth

Alvaro Bautista was the big surprise on the opening day of practice at a scorching hot Sepang today, the Spaniard riding his factory Suzuki GSV-R machine to the fifth quickest time.

Bautista proved once again that Suzuki’s V4 is a competitive package in hot conditions as he took full advantage of the punishing temperatures that peaked at close to 40 degrees this afternoon.

Track temperature soared to a sizzling 54 degrees and the former world 125GP champion logged a best time of 2.03.338 to finish just 0.614s adrift of Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi.

He was only 0.178s behind Casey Stoner in fourth and he said: “I am happy today because we have made a good first practice, it was important that we were able to start with a good setting because we already had a good reference point from the winter tests. It was helpful to have that base setting, but today the conditions were much different from the test and I felt like I had less grip from the rear tyre. I started with the harder rear, but it did seem difficult to get the feel I wanted. I tried both my bikes with different settings and I preferred the second one because it was easier to ride. I put a soft tyre in at the end and did a few laps with that and set a good time. We are still a bit away from the lap-time at the winter test, so we have to improve on many things to get the bike where we want it.”

It emerged today in Malaysia that Bautista is likely to be Suzuki’s lone entrant in the 2011 MotoGP world championship.

Suzuki edged closer to downsizing to a one-rider effort having informed several team members yesterday (Thursday) that they won’t be offered new contracts.