Well, we knew it was coming, but Suzuki have now confirmed that they will not be fielding a MotoGP team for 2012. Suzuki are planning to return to MotoGP by 2014.

In a brief statement, they said:

“Suzuki Motor Corporation has decided to suspend temporarily its participation in FIM Road Racing Grand Prix MotoGP from 2012. This suspension is to cope with tough circumstances mainly caused by the prolonged recession in developed countries, a historical appreciation of Japanese Yen and repeated natural disasters. Having an eye to returning to MotoGP in 2014, Suzuki will now focus on developing a competitive new racing machine for that class. Suzuki will continue motocross racing activity and support of road racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles, by obtaining FIM homologation and co-operation with the supplier of its development racing kit parts.

Alvaro Bautista and Suzuki have announced that they will part company for 2012.

Suzuki, although not yet confirmed, look likely to run a team in the 2012 MotoGP season and will start the season using their existing 800cc bike.

Randy De Puniet could potentially be in the frame as a replacement for Bautista. De Puniet has yet to confirm his plans for next season, but he had a storming test on the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R yesterday by posting the 4th fastest time (ahead of some of the new 1000cc machines).

Álvaro Bautista:
“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.”

Here is the official Rizla Suzuki Press Release:

Rizla Suzuki has given the opportunity to Randy de Puniet to ride the GSV-R at today’s Valencian post-season test.

De Puniet will join the team this afternoon for a shakedown and comparison test to assess the potential of the GSV-R from another rider’s perspective. Rizla Suzuki has worked with Álvaro Bautista in a single rider team this season, with the exception of a couple of wild-card appearances for John Hopkins, and it is accepted as a good opportunity by the team and the Suzuki factory to get another rider’s feedback during the final test of 2011

Álvaro Bautista:
“I am really looking forward to going to the Valencia race. It has been a tough time for all of us since Sepang, but I am ready for the last race and the fact that it is in my home country always makes it a special occasion. I have done well in the last few races, and my Suzuki has felt great, but the results have not arrived so we need to put that right. My target for the weekend is to fight to the maximum, finish the race with a good result and dedicate it to Marco. We had so many huge battles together – I will use these memories positively in Valencia.”

Bautista’s stunning late lap was a lesson in opportunism, as he managed to get close enough to Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso and tucked in behind the Italian to use him as a wind-shield.

The lap initially saw Bautista in 3rd place on the timesheets, but Marco Simoncelli fired in a late fast lap to bump Bautista down to 4th.

Álvaro Bautista:
“I’m very happy with today, because I got my best qualifying result so far in MotoGP and at the toughest track for Suzuki, so that shows what good work we have done since last year. It was a fantastic lap behind Dovizioso and when I saw him in front of me on the track, I thought this is my opportunity – if I can’t do a good lap now, I’ll never do one! Third row was not difficult to achieve today, but when I followed him everything seemed easier. With this type of track in this wind and with these types of corners, it helps if you can follow another rider, you can certainly improve a lot and it feels much easier to ride. My feeling is good for tomorrow and I’ll try to make a strong start and stay with the front guys in the first one or two laps. If we can do that I think we will be competitive, because in the first few laps all riders will push hard and after six or seven laps the tyres will probably drop off and the rhythm will settle down. I will try to do a good race tomorrow and get the best possible result I can.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“To achieve Suzuki’s best qualifying since Mugello in 2009 – and Álvaro’s best so far – here at Phillip Island is almost funny! Álvaro has had a steady pace all weekend and when it mattered today he managed to tuck-in behind Dovizioso, and use him as a wind-break, and do an absolutely awesome lap-time. It’s been clear from the potential shown this year just how much the GSV-R has improved and for it to perform around here in cold and windy conditions – how it has done today – is testament to the hard work of Sahara san and his engineers in Hamamatsu and to Tom O’Kane and his crew here.

“As always to live with the factory Hondas and Yamahas will be a tough ask tomorrow, but Álvaro has put himself into a great position and if he can get a good start who knows what can happen.”

Bautista showed progress with his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R over the two sessions and managed an 8th place finish in the second session.

Bautista and Rizla Suzuki team-manager Paul Denning give their thoughts on their first day at Phillip Island and talk about their expectations for progress over the weekend below:

Álvaro Bautista:
“Up until this year this has not been one of the best tracks for the GSV-R and it was quite difficult here for me last year. In the first session this morning I didn’t feel a lot of rear grip, but we changed some things for this afternoon and it made a big difference to the feeling. We also worked on the electronics and altered the mapping for some of the corners to help with rear grip. At the end of the second session with some new tyres there was a big difference than with the used ones. This track has very fast corners and you can feel a difference between new and used tyres here quite a lot. I have done my best-ever lap at Phillip Island today and a 1’31 is not a bad time, but I still feel that we can improve the feeling in the bike and be quite a bit quicker. On the new tyres I can ride normal and with a good rhythm for a few laps, but it soon becomes difficult to exit from the corners and get the grip I need. We have improved a lot from last year and I feel more relaxed on the bike. I am happy with the first day, but will be a lot happier if I can get a good feeling tomorrow like I have had in the last few races, then I’m sure we’ll be in a good position for the race.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The pace of the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R on Phillip Island today is confirmation of how well, and how far, Suzuki has developed the bike since 2010. The character of the track is still not the best for us and Álvaro still has a couple of fundamental issues that are holding him back, but to be 0.2-of-a-second from fourth place and in the top-10 in this afternoon’s session is like a dream compared to last year. We still expect a tough weekend and a tough race, but we fully believe we can be in the fight for a decent position on Sunday.”

Álvaro Bautista and his Suzuki team, including the engineers in Japan, have made big steps with the GSV-R this year and will now be looking to make more improvements at the 4,448m Phillip Island circuit.

Bautista needs to convert the renewed potential that the Rizla Suzuki team have found from the GSV-R into results. Last time out at Motegi, Bautista was running in fourth place, before a crash robbed him of what looked like being his best result so far this season. With the factory still undecided on their MotoGP future, solid race results can only help in ensuring that the top execs at Suzuki see a future in their continued participation in MotoGP.

Álvaro Bautista:
“I was very disappointed and upset at the end of the race in Japan, because we deserved to hold on to that result after all the hard work everyone has put in. We have to take all the positives from that weekend, and the previous races, and keep working in that same frame of mind in Australia. I know this will be a completely different challenge, but the bike is now working well in all conditions and this weekend will show us how far we have come this season. I missed out on a top-10 at Phillip Island by less than a hundredth-of-a-second last year and I’m sure we can certainly go much better than that this weekend. You never know what the weather will do at Phillip Island, but we’re ready no matter what happens!”

In the final minutes of the session Bautista was actually placed provisionally on the second row, but he was unable to improve on his previous time and was subsequently bumped down to 8th by the time the qualifying was over.

As Bautista himself noted: “With the time I did in qualifying – one-and-a-half-seconds quicker than last year – I would have been in pole position in 2010″

Still no official word on Suzuki’s plans for next season – it was expected that at some point over this weekend the team would be announcing their MotoGP plans for next season. Suzuki have not yet confirmed if they will be putting a MotoGP forward, let alone if it will be a one or two rider team.

Álvaro Bautista:
“With the time I did in qualifying – one-and-a-half-seconds quicker than last year – I would have been in pole position in 2010! This year the level is amazing and the lap-times are very fast, but our performance is also due to the hard work the guys in the Factory have put in, it has made a big difference. This morning we tested different settings in the two bikes, one of which was set a little bit lower to help me in the hard braking parts of this track, but I tried it too late in the free practice so I didn’t have a clear idea which setting was better. This afternoon we started with the lower bike and harder compound tyres, but the feeling was not what I wanted, so I changed to the other bike and it was better. I improved my lap-time at the end, but I got into some traffic on my last laps so couldn’t improve it anymore. Eighth is not too bad and I want to produce a good race for all the Suzuki company and factory guys that are here this weekend supporting us. I will try to get a good start and fight from the beginning, I think the first three or four will be difficult to catch, but after that I think we can be in the battle for the next few positions. We will see what the weather brings and the condition of the track, but I am looking forward to a good race.”

Paul Denning –Team Manager:
“We needed a strong qualifying performance today and Álvaro delivered that. We just didn’t get the timing right on the last run, in terms of track position and traffic, but only half-of-a-second off fourth place on Honda’s home track is a decent result. The first couple of laps will be critical tomorrow and I believe if Álvaro is in the tow with the fastest riders there is a possibility of a very strong result.”

Alvaro Bautista finished the first two practice sessions at Motegi in 12th place and 11th place respectively.

Not the start the team were hoping for, and both Bautista and team-manager Paul Denning maintain that there is more potential to come from the Suzuki this weekend.

Álvaro Bautista:
“We tested a different setting this morning and compared it against the one from Aragon. We used the new set-up in the bike with the new swinging-arm and it was definitely better. This afternoon we tried the harder option tyres, because although the softer ones were not too bad this morning, I still had a bit of movement entering the corners. This track has a lot of hard braking and the harder front tyre is much better for that because it gives me more stability. We still don’t know which compound we will use for the race, so we have to test a bit more tomorrow and it will also depend on the temperature on race-day. At the end I got into a fairly good rhythm, but I still don’t feel 100% with the bike. I had a little gear-shift problem and this made judging the braking points quite difficult, and I had a lot of movement because I was moving my whole body to change down a gear. We improved at the end, but not enough and I think that we can make some big steps tomorrow. With some hard work we can make the bike perform better and improve our lap-time.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We didn’t get up to speed as quickly as we would have liked to here in Motegi. Álvaro has had a number of small restrictions that have held him back, but on the positive side his best lap-time wasn’t faster than his regular rhythm and was very repeatable. By the end of FP2 the gap to the top-six had reduced to a level which will hopefully allow us to make in-roads during tomorrow and the team will improve the bike overnight.”

“After much debate – which in the end I am glad we as Rizla Suzuki stayed away from – it’s a pleasure to be back in Motegi and find the circuit and the Japanese fans so welcoming to the MotoGP circus!”

This will be his 2nd MotoGP wildcard of the season. His first was at Brno, where he unfortunately missed the race after crashing out durning qualifying and damaged his finger. Hopkins also raced at Jerez when he was deputising for the injured Alvaro Bautista and managed to finish in a solid 10th place.

John Hopkins:
“I am really pumped to get this chance to ride in a MotoGP race with the Rizla Suzuki team. I thought after Brno that I wouldn’t get the opportunity again and was really disappointed that I missed out there due to a silly mistake, so to be heading to Sepang is fantastic. It is one of my favourite tracks and I know it well because we used to test there a lot. My main focus is on the British Championship at the moment, but as soon as that is over I will be in MotoGP mode and putting all my efforts into getting a good result at Sepang and showing that I can perform at the highest level. I really want to get back into MotoGP and this is a great chance to show what I can do.

“Again I need to thank everyone at Rizla Suzuki for giving me this opportunity and my Samsung Crescent team – I hope that by the time I get back on the MotoGP bike we will have been celebrating something really big at Brands Hatch!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We’d intended to give John at least one outing on the Rizla Suzuki Grand Prix bike this year and we’re delighted that he’ll join us in Malaysia to form a two–man team with Álvaro. Sepang is one of John’s favourite tracks and also one that the GSV-R has performed well at in the past. What happened in Brno – with John’s injury – and the way he has worked so hard to come back from it, and challenge for the British Superbike Championship, has only reaffirmed his commitment to success and getting back to the top level. Let’s hope at Sepang we manage to line up at the start of the race with two Rizla Suzukis and that Álvaro and John can show what they and the team are all capable of producing.”