Alvaro trains on a Supermoto bike during the 2009 season.

Alvaro playing the kettledrum in the paddock at the Valencian GP 2009. Rhythm is it.

Sponsored by REV’IT! Sport International

Hi everyone ~

A very special announcement for you, as we introduce this year’s RACECARD Competition, featuring our greatest prize yet: a pair of Alvaro’s racing gloves, used by Bati this coming season and signed by him too – courtesy of our very special sponsors REV’IT! Sport International, suppliers of Alvaro’s leathers in 2010.
REV’iT! will also be providing some runners-up prizes of t-shirts, again exclusively signed by Alvaro himself.

Those of you who have been forum members for a while and who may have played RACECARD 2009 will need no introduction to the game; it’s simple – you just predict Alvaro’s qualifying and race positions race by race across the season and you score points for correct predictions.

We will be posting up the topic for the first round in the week ahead of the first race, and you can find out more about RACECARD 2010 – and keep up to date with an ongoing league table at this address:
www.batifans.com/racecard
The competition is open to forum members only, so if you’re not a member, then join now!

To find out more about REV’IT! and their ranges of bike and fashion gear go to: www.revit.eu

See you on the forum,
gb & stv21

New signing Alvaro Bautista (2’01.732, 59 laps) made huge steps during the latest two day test at the 5,548m Sepang International circuit. Suzuki’s new Spanish star shaved over two-and-a-half seconds from his fastest time from the previous test and is still certain there is more to come as he continues his acquaintance with the Suzuki GSV-R. Unfortunately his progress was hampered by a small low-slide crash on day one – from which he escaped unhurt – and a very large slide later in the same day which, although there was no crash, forced him to receive treatment to a torn muscle in his left arm. This restricted his performance on the second day and meant he was unable to get as much time on the bike as he wanted.

Loris Capirossi (2,01.320, 102 laps) showed his intent on day one of the two-day test by recording a time of 2’01.687 – nearly half-of-a-second better than his best time at Sepang earlier this month. He improved further still on that time during day two, delivering a quickest time of 2’01.321 to give him sixth place overall at the end of testing. Capirossi used the test to evaluate the 2010 ‘long-life’ engine specification for the Suzuki GSV-R and was pleased with the preliminary results. He also completed a near-full race simulation in the later part of the day which resulted in interesting feedback and data.

Bautista and Capirossi recorded their best times on the harder compound rear tyres that will be the ones used in a race situation rather than the softer compound that will be most likely favoured as a qualifying tyre. Both riders also conducted a series of tests on new chassis components and various other performance strategies. The team was ably assisted by Test Rider Nobuatsu Aoki, who completed a thorough and comprehensive shake-down test on Wednesday to prepare the bikes for Bautista and Capirossi. The results of this – and the previous – test In Malaysia will now be analysed back at Suzuki’s HQ in Hamamatsu to prepare the GSV-R for the final pre-season test at Doha in Qatar next month.

Rizla Suzuki will next be in action at the Qatar test in mid-March, this will be last chance Bautista, Capirossi and the engineers get the chance to improve the Suzuki GSV-R at a racetrack before the season kicks off with the first race of the season – also in Qatar – on Sunday 11th April.

Alvaro Bautista:
“I am very happy with this test and it shows that we have improved a big amount since the last test here. It was a bit of a strange day today because I did improve my time, but after nearly crashing yesterday I was in a lot of pain and it made it very difficult to ride, so I was not able to do too many laps. It has been a good test though and I am happy with the direction we are going in. I still need to get some parts of the bike improved and I am sure we will make more steps in Qatar. I feel very happy with most things at the moment, the team is very good and we are all working together very well and I am finally starting to ride the bike how I want to!”

Unofficial laptimes as of 2PM local time

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2′00.271
2. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2′00.512
3. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)2′00.703
4. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2′00.988
5. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 2′01.014
6. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 2′01.320
7. Andrea Dovizioso Honda) 2′01.439
8. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)2′01.732
9. Randy de Puniet (Honda)2′01.980
10. Marco Melandri (Honda)2′02.078
11. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 2′02.117
12. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 2′02.196
13. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2′02.366
14. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 2′02.403
15. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 2′02.487
16. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 2′03.689

UPDATE

Alvaro did only four more laps in the afternoon and did not manage to improve his laptimes from earlier today. This might be due to the light arm injury he sustained during the slide after his crash yesterday. Subsequently he slipped back to 10th in the standings.

1. Rossi (Yamaha) 2.00.271 (giri 12 di 39)
2. Stoner (Ducati) 2.00.512 (13 di 33)
3. Hayden (Ducati) 2.00.703 (20 di 42)
4. Edwards (Yamaha) 2.00.988 (18 di 35)
5. Spies (Yamaha) 2.01.014 (11 di 44)
6. Capirossi (Suzuki) 2.01.320 (6 di 50)
7. Dovizioso (Honda) 2.01.439 (13 di 46)
8. Pedrosa (Honda) 2.01.478 (56 di 57)
9. Aoyama (Honda) 2.01.692 (47 di 50)
10. Bautista (Suzuki) 2.01.732 (17 di 25)
11. De Puniet (Honda) 2.01.980 (4 di 58)
12. Melandri (Honda) 2.02.078 (3 di 60)
13. Barberà (Ducati) 2.02.4080 (45 di 52)
14. Kallio (Ducati) 2.02.082 (65 di 66)
15. Yamaha T 2.02.287 (17 di 18)
16. Espargarò (Ducati) 2.02.367 (49 di 49)
17. Simoncelli (Honda) 2.03.689 (2 di 2)
18. Yamaha O 2.04.500 (11 di 43)

Photos by Mirco Lazzari.

Unofficial laptimes at 1PM local time:

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2′01.068
2. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2′01.268
3. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 2′01.753
4. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2′01.897
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 2′01.899
6. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 2′02.042
7. Marco Melandri (Honda) 2′02.086
8. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2′02.399
9. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 2′02.419
10. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 2′02.449
11. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 2′02.485
12. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 2′02.807
13. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 2′02.946
14. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 2′03.262
15. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 2′03.338
16. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 2′03.371

UPDATE: Alvaro keeps improving his laptimes as is now 9th fastest as of 6PM local time, only a blink away from Pedrosa’s laptime in 7th! He’s now also the fastest of the “real” Rookies. Looking good so far.

Unofficial laptimes at 6PM local time:

1. Rossi (Yamaha) 2.01.068
2. Stoner (Ducati) 2.01.219
3. Dovizioso (Honda) 2.01.631
4. Capirossi (Suzuki) 2.01.687
5. Spies (Yamaha) 2.01.843
6. Edwards (Yamaha) 2.01.897
7. Pedrosa (Honda) 2.02.036
8. Kallio (Ducati) 2.02.038
9. Bautista (Suzuki) 2.02.078
10. Melandri (Honda) 2.02.086
11. Hayden (Ducati) 2.02.221
12. Aoyama (Honda) 2.02.419
13. Espargarò (Ducati) 2.02.447
14. Barbera (Ducati) 2.02.485
15. De Puniet (Honda) 2.02.535
16. Simoncelli (Honda) 2.03.254

But the weather conditions could hamper their work over the next two days. While the air and track temperatures in Sepang are high as usual – with felt air temperatures predicted to reach up to 40°C – various weather forecasts predict scattered thunderstorms in the region for Thursday and Friday.