Alvaro Bautista determined to honour Marco Simoncelli in 2012

Alvaro Bautista has vowed to give his all to honour the memory of late Italian rider Marco Simoncelli in 2012 after he joined the Gresini Honda squad this week.

Bautista quit Suzuki with the Japanese factory continuing to stall on confirming its 2012 MotoGP plans and he signed a deal with Fausto Gresini’s satellite Honda squad for the inaugural 1000cc premier class series.

The Spaniard will replace Simoncelli, who lost his life in a tragic accident during the early stages of last month’s Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

Bautista made his debut for Gresini Honda earlier this week when he tested Hiroshi Aoyama’s 800cc RC212V machine in Valencia.

He will get his first chance to test Honda’s new RC213V 1000cc bike in Sepang on January 31, and the former 125GP world champion said he will be giving his maximum effort to best honour Simoncelli.

He told MCN: “Sure I couldn’t come to this team without the tragedy that happened to Marco and it is certainly not the best way to do this. I would like to do a good year to be happy with myself and to do a good job for the team. But more than anything I want to do a good job for Marco. I will try my best to stay in the same position he was achieving.”