Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) had another solid day in Sepang as testing continues in Malaysia, with the Spaniard proving a threat at the top before ending the day in third. The former World Champion, who is riding a Ducati for the first time in the premier class in 2017, showed good pace on Day 1 and improved on his standing on Day 2 – but not quite his laptime.
The Spaniard put in a best time of 2:00.218 on Day 2, completing 49 laps despite early intrusions from damper weather.
Alvaro Bautista, P3: “I’m happy because we’ve been very competitive and we’ve been able to complete everything we had programmed. I like the engine a lot and my riding style is adapting to this bike. We still need to improve some things, but the base is very competitive. We tried a few things with electronics to utilize all the power and we found a few things that could be good in future. Our bike, although it’s from last year, has a good base because it has won races. Today was a complicated day in terms of waiting for the track to dry at about 2. There also wasn’t as much grip as yesterday and it was more difficult to get the same feeling – but that’s the same for everyone.”