Bautista battling through the pain in France

Álvaro Bautista gritted his teeth and bore the pain as he completed the hour-long first practice session at the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France on Friday. It is a week to the day that the Rizla Suzuki rider underwent surgery on a broken collarbone following a motocross training accident.

Riding without the aid of painkillers Bautista completed 19 laps as the weekend got underway at Le Mans, and admitted that the going was tough.

“I thought that I would feel better today than I do! I have worked very hard this week to be fit and I was confident that I would be able to ride the bike. It was very difficult though, because after two or three laps I started to lose energy and my left arm was hurting a lot and I couldn’t ride like I wanted to,” explained the 25 year-old, who is only two races into his debut season in the premier class.

Bautista will see how Saturday pans out with a second practice session and qualifying requiring further energy, and the prospect of a gruelling race on Sunday will also weigh into his decision.

“Tomorrow I will have a painkilling injection and hopefully the pain will be less, and I will then make a decision if I continue with the weekend. Today the maximum I felt I could do was five laps and the race is 28, so I still have a long way to go. I will try with the injection and see if things improve,” he added.

Team manager Paul Denning hopes that the chance to recuperate overnight and some close attention to the recovering injury will help Bautista continue.

“Hopefully with some physiotherapy tonight and the injection in the morning, we’ll be in a better position to understand if a full race distance on Sunday is possible,” he stated.

In the event that Bautista is unable to continue, he is likely to be substituted by Suzuki Test rider Nobuatsu Aoki.