Bautista looking to 'finish the job' at Buriram

After the disappointment of seeing an eighth-place qualifying go to waste with an early fall in his home Aragon MotoGP, Alvaro Bautista is seeking to 'finish the job' this weekend in Thailand.

The Spaniard was only 17th fastest during February's Buriram test, but that was before making the radical set-up changes that saw him finish in the top ten at every round from Mugello in June until Aragon.

“I go to Thailand feeling motivated to start this month of races outside Europe with a strong result. It is a new circuit for everybody although we did test there in February," said Bautista, who will leave MotoGP to join the factory Ducati WorldSBK team in 2019.

"At that time we weren't in the best form, but luckily the situation has changed since then. With the feeling that I have in this second half of the season and the work we have done, I am looking forward to comparing our performance from the start of the season to now.

"We will head into the weekend with the same working plan as usual, which would have been good enough for a good result at Aragón if not for the crash. Let's see if we can finish the job off this weekend with a good result in the race.”

Despite the Aragon DNF, Bautista is just four points behind Pramac's Jack Miller in the fight to be top GP17 rider in the world championship.

Bautista's team-mate Karel Abraham is one of the few grand prix riders to have prior race experience in Thailand, courtesy of a World Superbike appearance in 2016.

"We scored a point at Aragón and we go to Thailand in good spirits," said the GP16 rider. "It will be a difficult race because we will have similar temperatures to the last race but with much higher humidity, and it is also the rainy season.

"I have been looking forward to the flyaway races because they are some of my favourite circuits.

"This will be the first race at Buriram for the MotoGP paddock but I did race there in World Superbikes a couple of years ago, although I don't think that will make much difference because we had a preseason test there in February.”