Magny-Cours (France), Friday 3 October 2014 – A usual hard day’s work. The first day of practice at Magny-Cours on Friday followed the same tried and true script for the Aprilia Racing Team.
The most important note is that both Guintoli and Melandri seem to be on the right path to preparing their official RSV4s for the penultimate round of World Superbike on the French track. The intention is to pick up where they left off at the last race in Jerez, made unforgettable by Melandri’s double win and the two second place finishes Guintoli brought home.
One can never pass judgement on Friday, but the stopwatch also comforted the riders’ good feelings.
Sylvain Guintoli, whose objective is to continue gaining points on current leader Sykes, was fastest on the track in the morning session. In the afternoon, although finishing third in the combined standings, he expressed his satisfaction in the changes that were tested.
Sylvain Guintoli: “We did a lot of work with the races in mind today. Tomorrow we’ll focus on improving further but we are already pretty well set for pace. As I said before, I like this track and I like riding my RSV4 here. We’ll keep working on a dry track setup and if the situation changes on Sunday we’ll have to adapt. The good thing is that most of the riders seem like they’ll be able to be fast, so hopefully that will give us a hand”.
Marco Melandri’s impressions were fairly similar. The rider from Ravenna is in excellent shape with 6 wins out of the last 10 rounds and coming off the double win in Andalusia. Third in the morning session, he finished fifth in the afternoon but improved his time. However, he is also convinced that what counts today is the work done with the races in mind.
Marco Melandri: “All told it was a good day for us, definitely difficult but in the end we were able to find the right direction. Looking at the times the situation seems encouraging for us, but I’m sure that some of our adversaries were holding their cards close to their chests in the last run. Tomorrow we’ll keep working on pace. Magny-Cours is a track where I have never been able to take home a good result for various reasons, so I would really like to vindicate myself”.
