SAN MARINO GP PREVIEW
AT MISANO TO CONFIRM THE GREAT SILVERSTONE WEEKEND
Misano, 8 September 2015 – The last GP, held at Silverstone, was one of the best yet for the Aprilia RS-GP machines in this rookie year on the track.
Alvaro Bautista, after demonstrating an excellent pace over race difference during qualifiers, took tenth place in the wet race to match his best performance of the season in Barcelona. Stefan Bradl, who crashed out of the race, had put in the best qualifying session of 2015 for Aprilia, earning a spot on the fifth row of the grid.
This brings Aprilia Racing Team Gresini to their home race with the goal of repeating, not so much and not only the results of the English round, as much as confirming the growth trend which has placed Bautista and Bradl in a position these last few rounds to battle for a finish in the points.
In Romagna the technical development path with continue with a new frame for Bradl as well and the return of the chassis solutions that were successfully tested at Silverstone.
ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)
“At Misano Bradl will also have the new frame that responded well with Bautista. We’ll retry a setup that had given us good results during private tests at Misano with Alvaro. The tests on Tuesday will also be very important, helpful for both riders and the first chance for Stefan to do some testing without the excitement of a race weekend. In the race we’ll try to confirm the good job we did at Silverstone, maybe with both riders this time, like we did at Brno.”
FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
“We’re on a good streak right now and we are preparing for this important round with maximum motivation. We are pleased with the placements we’ve achieved in recent rounds and with the way the RS-GP development has been progressing. At Misano we’ll extend the use of the new frame to Bradl as well so we can take a few more steps forward on the technical side of the house. This is our home race so, besides the development work which is still our top priority, we would like to achieve a good result for our fans.”
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“We are extremely motivated leading up to Misano. At Silverstone we did a good job the whole weekend and in the race, on a wet track, we managed to achieve some good sensations and to be competitive enough to finish in the top ten. At Misano we’ll be facing a new situation. In fact, it is a very different track than Silverstone and we won’t have many points of reference to go on. In the tests we did in June we were only able to get a few laps in, what’s more with a different setup than the one we are currently using. Misano holds fond memories for me. In fact, this is where I had my first MotoGP podium finish. It’s hard to make a prediction, but in our home race we will definitely be giving it our all with the goal of finishing in the points zone again.”
STEFAN BRADL
“Misano is a great track. I’ve always liked it at the atmosphere is fantastic too. The entire team has great expectations for this home round and I can’t wait to get on the track myself as well. At Silverstone I was already able to test a few changes with the team and we did a good job. This weekend I’ll have some more updates available to me so I’m anxious to get back to work with my mechanics. I’m also curious to be able to test the new asphalt.”
