Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) had good pace at MotorLand Aragon, and kept that rolling in the race as the Spaniard took eighth – but spent much of the latter stages in the group battling for fourth. In addition and most importantly for the Independent Team outfit, Bautista was only eight seconds off the win – and although that meant P8 at Aragon, it sets a good precedent for other races.
Alvaro Bautista, P8: "It was a good race, less than eight seconds behind the winner. In other races, with that difference, it could have been fifth, but at least that means there is a lot of equality. I am satisfied because I gave one hundred percent and tried to get the most out our package. We went out and took a gamble on the soft rear, because we did not know what would happen after the seventh lap, which is the maximum we had managed in practice. In the race I was in the second group, the lead group was very strong but then we recovered ground. In acceleration I lost a bit, it was something that we wanted to have improved in the warm up and we could not, and then in the braking I had to recover. We had a good pace so I hope to continue in this way next time."