The final challenge of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship began today at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia with the first two free practice sessions: Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding got back to business closing the combined classification in 16th and 18th position, respectively, divided by a few thousandths.

Today's outcome shows how Bautista is still slowed down by the well-known rear grip issues: the Spaniard tried several changes to his Honda RC213V set-up, but without achieving a good feeling with the bike. His best performance, 1’32”711, obtained in the morning session, at the moment relegates him back in sixteenth position.

His teammate, Scott Redding, set in the afternoon a very similar lap time, 1’32”771: the English rookie said he was satisfied with the progress made between the first and second session, and tomorrow he will try to improve the behaviour of his Honda RCV1000R machine especially under braking.

ALVARO BAUTISTA (16th - 1'32"711)

“There’s not much to say except that our situation has not changed compared to the last races: today we worked hard, but we couldn’t find anything satisfactory. I still don’t have feeling with the rear of the bike and every time I try to push, I lose grip. Riding in this condition is really difficult. Tomorrow we will continue to try changes to the set-up, hoping to find a better feeling with the bike, but after so many races we are not so optimistic. However, we will give our maximum until Sunday, that’s sure”.

SCOTT REDDING (18th - 1'32"771)

“I felt quite good today: when I went out on track I felt immediately comfortable and our lap times has been quite consistent. We’ve been working well and so far I’m quite happy with the progress from today. At the moment we are just losing a little bit under braking because of the bumps, so we are going to try and find something that could help us for tomorrow. About tyres, we are also doing a good job either with the hard or the soft option, so we are not worried”.

Combined Free Practice Classification

1 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team 1'31.296
2 Jorge Lorenzo Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1'31.489
3 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Team 1'31.558
4 Aleix Espargaro NGM Forward Racing 1'31.565
5 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1'31.647
6 Cal Crutchlow Ducati Team 1'31.731
7 Valentino Rossi Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1'31.767
8 Stefan Bradl LCR Honda MotoGP 1'31.935
9 Pol Espargaro Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'32.013
10 Bradley Smith Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'32.019
11 Hector Barbera Avintia Blusens 1'32.153
12 Michele Pirro Ducati Team 1'32.267
13 Andrea Iannone Pramac Racing 1'32.486
14 Alex De Angelis Tasca Racing Moto2 1'32.562
15 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing 1'32.689
16 Alvaro Bautista GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1'32.711
17 Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing 1'32.725
18 Scott Redding GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1'32.771
19 Randy De Puniet Team Suzuki MotoGP 1'32.799
20 Nicky Hayden Drive M7 Aspar 1'33.434
21 Hiroshi Aoyama Drive M7 Aspar 1'33.436
22 Danilo Petrucci IodaRacing Project 1'33.504
23 Michael Laverty Paul Bird Motorsport 1'33.737
24 Broc Parkes Paul Bird Motorsport 1'34.106
25 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Blusens 1'34.988

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