FIFTH ROW AND A GOOD PACE FOR STEFAN BRADL AT BRNO
ALVARO BAUTISTA ON THE SEVENTH ROW
At the end of the qualifying on the Brno Circuit, the Aprilia RS-GP machines ridden by Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista took the fifth and seventh row on the starting grid, finishing respectively in fifteenth and nineteenth place.
In the two sessions that preceded Q1, Alvaro and Stefan continued the usual work on finding the best setup for the race tomorrow. Both riders demonstrated good progress, especially on used tyres.
The decisive qualifying session had the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini riders on the track for a first attempt before launching an assault on the best spot on the grid with new tyres. Stefan put in his fast lap at 1’56.718, an improvement of 3 tenths compared with his performance in FP3, earning the third spot on the fifth row. Alvaro, on the other hand, had to interrupt his qualifying due to a technical problem, and was therefore forced to settle for the 19th position on the grid.
In any case, both Bradl and Bautista praised the work done during the two days of practice and they will be able to count on good race pace as they look forward to the race tomorrow with confidence. The weather is the unknown factor that could disrupt the team’s plans, given the less than encouraging forecast.
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“Today in FP3 we improved our pace with used tyres, whereas in FP4 we tried a setting that did not give us a good feeling on the front with the hard tyre. We backtracked to find the good feeling again. I started the qualifiers confidently because I knew that we would be using the soft tyre and I was aiming for a good position. I took the first lap in 1’57 quite easily and then I went in to put on the new tyres in order to really have a go, but at a certain point the bike slowed down and I had to interrupt my qualifying session. Starting from behind is never easy, but we will give it our best anyway in the race”.
STEFAN BRADL
“The FP3 session was difficult. We did a lot of work on the settings but without finding any benefits. In the second session, on the other hand, we took a step forward, improving our race pace. The situation is similar to yesterday, our pace is decidedly better than our flying lap would lead to believe. We still did not express our best potential in qualifying, but overall I am satisfied. We still have a few details to work on, especially coming out of corners where we need to find more grip. Hopefully the track will be dry tomorrow”.
