Valencia MotoGP: Alvaro Bautista sorry for first corner chaos

Alvaro Bautista’s hopes of ending a tough 2011 MotoGP campaign with a rostrum in the season’s final race in Valencia ended less than 10 seconds into Sunday’s 30-lap race.

The factory Suzuki rider lost control of his GSV-R machine in the braking zone for the first corner when he made contact with the rear tyre of Andrea Dovizoso’s Repsol Honda.

The Spaniard tumbled out and his Suzuki torpedoed into Valentino Rossi, with Nicky Hayden and Randy de Puniet also caught up in the pile-up.

All four walked away unhurt but Bautista quickly went to Ducati’s factory garage to apologise to Rossi and Hayden.

The former 125GP world champion said: “It has been a bad way to end the year, because before the race I was expecting to be fighting for the podium. In all conditions we had been fast this weekend and I thought we would have a good race.

“In the first corner we all arrived together and I was between Andrea and Valentino. Unfortunately Andrea hit my front wheel with his rear tyre and I couldn’t do anything to save the crash.

“The worst thing was that I hit three other riders and they crashed as well, I am sorry for them and also sorry for the team and all the fans.

“This year has been very tough, it didn’t start very well when I broke my left femur and although we did a good job – especially in the middle of the season when I was totally fit, both mentally and physically – we haven’t finished with that many good results.

“I got more and more confident in the bike as the season went on and the work we have done has been amazing, we have come such a long way.”

For more news from Valencia, see this week’s copy of Motor Cycle News.