Rizla Suzuki had announced that they would be testing at Valencia, however as most of us assumed, we though it would be Alvaro Bautista doing the test, instead we saw an impressive and immediately fast Randy de Puniet debut on the 2011 800cc machine, while Bautista and his manager were working on negotiations with Fausto Gresini, sponsor San Carlo and HRC.
Early this morning Rizla Suzuki officially announced they were parting ways with the Spaniard, who debuted in MotoGP and spent his first two years with the team.
Bautista is expected to debut on the Gresini Honda later today, while Suzuki has received an ultimatum that they have to comunicate their future racing plans in MotoGP by Friday.
“I am very sad to be leaving Suzuki after the two great years that I have had here.
It has been a great team to work in and I have learnt a lot of things from everyone in the team.
It was a fantastic experience working with an English/Japanese team and we have become like a big family, except we have never had any arguments and no-one falls out with each other! I want to thank everybody personally for the last two years, sometimes it has been difficult, but nobody ever gave up and I felt like I always had their full support and commitment.
I don’t feel like I am leaving a team, but a group of friends that I hope I will know for a long time.
I want to say a special thank-you to Tom, Paul, Ken san and Sahara san, and wish them and the rest of the team all the best for the future,” said Bautista.