Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) had a tough qualifying session in the NeroGiardini Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich, unable to make it through to Q2 and subsequently lining up in P17. Reverting back to the setup used on Friday, Bautista was able to slice through the field and up into eighth - gaining nine places for another solid haul of points, just out of reach of the second group as he ran out of laps.
Alvaro Bautista, P8: ”I think this is a good result for us, after a weekend when we had a lot of problems with rear grip. We have changed the bike quite a lot but we didn't find a solution and we went back to the set-up from Friday. In any case, starting from so far back was difficult. I was careful at the start and as the laps went by I was able to recover. I was setting the same times as the second group, or even faster, but by then it was impossible to catch them.”