The penultimate round of 2014 campaign, the Malaysian Grand Prix held today at a scorching hot Sepang, saw Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista failing to finish the race after he was hit by Aleix Espargarò at the beginning of the second lap.

The Spaniard could not prevent the fall as a result of the impact with Aleix’s bike coming into the first corner: therefore, an already very difficult weekend ended in the worst way for Bautista, who now is already focused on the last round of the season, scheduled in two weeks to Valencia, in order to close this very complicated season with a good result.

His teammate, Scott Redding, was the first Open Class Honda RCV1000R to pass the finish line in tenth place: the English rookie, who struggled yesterday in qualifying, opted for the hard compound rear tyre, struggling to find a good rhythm. A race certainly not easy for him, which anyway gave him, like at Phillip Island, a top ten finish and the first place among Open Class Honda bikes.

ALVARO BAUTISTA (DNF)

“I honestly don’t know how to explain what happened: I passed Aleix Espargarò on the straight early in the second lap and I was in front of him braking for the first corner, on the inside; then, he suddenly closed the line, touching me, and we both went down. Fortunately we’re fine, but I’m sorry for the team and for myself. Too bad, this is definitely not our season, we always have so many problems, now joined by this episode...”.

SCOTT REDDING (10th)

“I went with the harder rear tyre, because we knew that we had a little less pace than Aoyama this weekend, so knowing that the other Open Class Honda bikes were going to use the soft option, we just tried a different tactic, like we did in Phillip Island. We thought that with the hard tyre we could come strong in the latter part of the race, but actually it was the wrong idea. I think we should have gone with the soft tyre. That’s why I lost most of the time, and then it was a matter of just staying consistent and trying to finish the race. Anyway, for the Championship is good to be the top Open Class Honda again, even if during the weekend Aoyama was faster than us”.

FAUSTO GRESINI

“It was a very difficult weekend, moreover ended prematurely for Alvaro because a manoeuvre of another rider early in the race. Obviously we are disappointed: we knew we couldn’t get a great result, but it was still important to see the finish line and collect points. Now let’s look already at the last race in Valencia, where we will do our best to end this difficult season in positive fashion. Redding struggled to keep a good pace, but eventually hit his target, that was to be the top Production Racer HOnda: now Scott can count on a good advantage in terms of points on Aoyama, so in Valencia we have a good chance to close the ranking in first place among the riders aboard the Honda RCV1000R”.

Race Results

1 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team40'45.523
2 Valentino Rossi Movistar Yamaha MotoGP+2.445
3 Jorge Lorenzo Movistar Yamaha MotoGP+3.508
4 Stefan Bradl LCR Honda MotoGP+21.234
5 Bradley Smith Monster Yamaha Tech 3+22.283
6 Pol Espargaro Monster Yamaha Tech 3+34.668
7 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing+38.435
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Team+48.839
9 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing+50.792
10 Scott Redding GO&FUN Honda Gresini+59.088
11 Hiroshi Aoyama Drive M7 Aspar+1'15.949
12 Michael Laverty Paul Bird Motorsport+1'17.966
13 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Racing1'27.773
14 Broc Parkes Paul Bird Motorsport+1'44.244

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