Alvaro Bautista battles to seventh at Sachsenring

If we were to say who impressed us more after Dani Pedrosa coming back after a difficult injury to win the Sachsenring GP and Jorge Lorenzo’s gutsy pass at the final turn on the last lap, it would have to be Alvaro Bautista.
The Spaniard who rides what is considered a lowly and uncompetitive Suzuki finished seventh after a race long battle with two tough opponents like Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi.

“I am happy with today’s result because it was a fun race and I am quite pleased with where we finished,” said Bautista.
“At the beginning I had to try and get a good start, because in the first corner you have to be very careful with other riders.
I got a decent start and was in a good position just behind the top riders, but I was a bit too far away from them, and my rhythm wasn’t quite as quick, so I couldn’t quite stay with them.

I got involved with the two Ducati guys and really enjoyed the race with them.

At the end it was very difficult to overtake Valentino and Nicky because they brake very hard and very late, making it tough to get past.
On the last lap I overtook Valentino at the end of the main straight.
I then followed Nicky and waited for the last two corners because I knew I had an opportunity there to get him.
I had to brake with everything I had to get past him on corner 12, but I ran a bit wide and lost some speed, Nicky overtook me on the last corner, but he entered too quickly and he went out, so I got past him on the exit of the corner.
I am very happy that we are the first finisher after the top six because they are on a different level at the moment.
For the next race I hope to continue with this way of working and get closer to the top.
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