PHILLIP ISLAND PREVIEW
IN AUSTRALIA BAUTISTA AND BRADL SEEK CONFIRMATION OF THE PROGRESS THE APRILIAS HAVE MADE IN THE LAST RACE AT MOTEGI
Phillip Island (Australia), 14 October 2015 – The second stop on the Pacific tour takes MotoGP to the fast sweepers of the exciting Australian track of Phillip Island. This is a track with completely different characteristics than the one at Motegi where the last race was held. Precisely for this reason the challenge that awaits Aprilia Racing Team Gresini is to resume development on the RS-GP which returned some excellent results during the first two days of practice in Japan. Before the rain shuffled the deck on race day Bradl and Bautista had demonstrated an excellent race pace and they brought home the best qualifiers of the season, with the German just barely missing out on Q2 by a few hundredths, starting on the fifth row, and with Alvaro starting on the sixth row.
ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)
“In Australia we are taking on an exciting track, completely different than the one at Motegi where the last race was held. Here the deceleration and restart situations are decidedly less important than they were in Japan and instead it will be the performance of the RS-GP in the long turns and direction changes that will make all the difference. For us this will be another important test for the development of our project and for the knowledge of the entire team. I would be happy to finally have some stable weather conditions which, unlike what happened in Japan, could provide some continuity for our work and allow us to take all the good work we are able to accomplish in practice into the race.”
FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
“At Motegi we had a two-sided experience: after the excellent practice sessions and performance in qualifying that turned out to be the best overall of the season, in the race, partially due to the weather conditions, we brought home less than we could have. In Japan, on a track that looked difficult on paper, in any case we were able to see the progress we’ve made throughout the season. The track at Phillip Island is one of the most exciting on the calendar with its fast sweepers, an ideal setting to continue our season of development!”.
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“Phillip Island is a fantastic track where I have wonderful memories since this is where I won my 125 title with Aprilia. The turns are very fast and it will be a great test bench for our bike. We need to try to work well from the first day to find a base setting quickly. It will be especially important to have a stable bike that can lap well on those fast turns. After Motegi we are strongly motivated because the race didn’t go as we would have liked but for the entire weekend performance was good.”
STEFAN BRADL
“In Australia we are taking on a completely different track than Motegi: Phillip Island is a fast track that on paper looks good for the characteristics of the RS-GP so I’m confident for this second round on the non-European tour. In Japan we worked hard to achieve better consistency in terms of race pace, making good progress, and we would like to continue on this path during practice. After which, I hope we have good weather for the race.”
