Set-up progression the key for Bautista in Japan

As the San Carlo Honda Gresini team heads to Japan for the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan at Motegi, Spaniard Álvaro Bautista is determined to step up onto the podium once again.

Bautista and his team will begin work in earnest this Friday as they look to improve his front-end setting and confidence for the season's final sprint. The Spaniard aims to get the maximum out of his Honda RC213V and repeat his podium from Misano before the current campaign is out.

Michele Pirro travels to Japan with the clear aim of being involved in the battle for CRT honours and as usual there will certainly be no shortage of effort from the rider and his crew.

Álvaro Bautista

"Aragón was something of a difficult weekend thanks largely to the mixed weather. We were never able to work as we wanted to during practice with the new material that Showa brought for us. If everything works [this time] as we hope then we should be competitive. We have to work a lot on the bike under braking because this is the most important factor at this circuit. I have been competitive at Motegi in the past so I hope to repeat that this weekend. Motegi is a circuit where you need a bike that is stable on the brakes and has good traction in corner exit. It should be well suited to our bike, which has great acceleration."

Michele Pirro

"It promises to be an important finale to the season and we need to try and close the gap down to the top CRTs. At Motegi we'll try to take another step closer. It's a technical track and even though it is not one of my favourites I will try my maximum alongside the guys in the team to fight to be the best CRT and come away with a good result."