Bautista on Simoncelli, title race and MotoGP

After five races of the 2009 World Championship Álvaro Bautista is the leader in the 250cc standings with a seven point advantage over his nearest rival. He spoke exclusively to motogp.com this week.

Q. How would you evaluate the season so far?
A. Well we have been in the top positions at almost every race and the championship is quite open because there have been different winners in every race. The level of competition is high, but we have been able to fight for the podium on a regular basis, which is really the key, consistency.

Q. Who do you see as your main rivals as you try to defend the championship lead?
A. I think from here the main rivals will be those riders who have been performing well already this season, so Hiroshi Aoyama, Marco Simoncelli and Héctor Barberá, but we also need to keep riders like Mattia Pasini and Alex Debón in mind.

Q. Looking back on the clash with Simoncelli in Italy, after a few days, how do you see the incident with hindsight?
A. “Having seen it from television I think it looks even clearer. He wasn’t trying to pass me he was just trying to push me off track. So I don’t agree with the punishment he got. He said he made a mistake on the corner, but he was in second place then and he finished second in the end. I was in first place and I finished third because of his mistake.”

Q. Do you want to go into MotoGP 100% next year or do you want to make sure you win the title before moving up?
A. “Well, I mean obviously I’d really like to win the 250cc title before leaving and I think we are going in the right direction at the moment. At the same time I have to think about the offers I’m getting for next year. There will be the new Moto2 category next season but we don’t know yet what the teams will be or exactly how the bikes will be so we need to consider that and MotoGP so see what the best option is.”

Q. There has been talk of Jorge Martinez ‘Aspar’ running a MotoGP team next season. Would you like to be part of that possible project?
A. “It looks like Jorge still really wants to move into MotoGP, the plans appear to be developing well and it seems like it could be with Yamaha. It would be necessary to see what kind of bike it would be, whether it would be a factory machine, what kind of support there would be, who would be in the technical team and so on. Jorge’s 250cc and 125cc teams are the best in the World Championship so I am very happy working with him, but in MotoGP they would be beginners so we need to look at how the set-up would be.”

Q. There have also been rumours that you will join Suzuki next year and that your 2010 contract will be sorted in Barcelona at the next GP. Is that a possibility?
A. “I think Suzuki are interested, but it’s a similar case to Jorge’s possible MotoGP team. With Suzuki we also need to see what the set-up will be like and what they want from the project. I think Barcelona will be a bit early for a final decision on everything though.”