The GO&FUN Honda Gresini team head to the United States in a good frame of mind after some encouraging signs in Qatar at round one.

Despite his crash two laps from the end of the Losail race Alvaro Bautista is confident that he can replicate the podium potential he showed during the opening round of the year.

Meanwhile Scott Redding, who was the best rookie in Qatar thanks to an excellent seventh place finish on his premier class debut, will try to remain as the fastest rider aboard the Open Class Honda RCV1000R.

“Despite suffering a fall, the entire race weekend in Qatar was very positive, so we head to Texas with great optimism,” said Bautista. “Unlike last year, when we raced there for the first time, this year we already have some data from 2013, although Austin still remains a complicated track in terms of finding a good set-up.”

“We will have to work well if we want to find a good compromise between the first part, characterized by many quick changes of direction, and the slower part, where there are three or four very tight corners. Last season struggled a lot, not being able to find a good balance, but this year we can count on a very good package, so we are confident.”

Redding added, “Riding a MotoGP bike at the Circuit of the Americas will be very interesting. I feel very comfortable on this track, in fact last year in Moto2™ I was really fast, setting the pole position with a 0.6s gap on anyone else. I also think that the track could suit our bike’s characteristics well, both in terms of handling and in terms of stability under braking. We will also focus our work on the tyres, because this track is quite demanding from this point of view, so probably we will need to start to work more on the hard tyre for this race, rather than the softer option, which we used in Qatar.”