THE MOTOGP WEEKEND STARTS WELL FOR APRILIA
AT MISANO BOTH BAUTISTA AND BRADL SEEM TO BE ON THE RIGHT PATH FOR SETTING UP THEIR RS-GP MACHINES
The first two free practice sessions at Misano tell the tale of an Aprilia that is approaching the thirteenth MotoGP Championship round on the right foot. In the morning FP1 session, Bradl was the best Aprilia Racing Team Gresini rider with the twelfth best time at 1’34.126, just over six tenths (675 thousandths) behind the best time.
In the afternoon session, Stefan began with the same confidence, staying among the best until a crash in the initial phases of the session forced him to change bikes, slowing his pace and keeping him from improving on his time from the first session, which was well within his potential. This meant that his teammate Bautista was more in the limelight with a best time of 1’33.846, a clear improvement compared with FP1 (shaving off 65 tenths). The Spaniard finished the session in thirteenth place.
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“We started off well. Even this morning in the first session, I finished a second behind the top time without ever changing the tyres. In the afternoon we decided to try a new frame setting, partially because we conducted two days of testing here, so we have plenty of information to work with. We found several positive things with this new configuration. There are a few aspects that need to be improved, but in general we were quite satisfied. Then, in the afternoon we had the best lap we have ever done with the RS-GP, so we can say that the day went very well. Tomorrow we will try to improve on those aspects that are still not perfectly fine tuned with this new setting in order to gain a few more tenths”.
STEFAN BRADL
“A day of ups and downs. This morning we had a very good FP1 session. Unfortunately, in FP2 after a rather fast first run I crashed on turn 14. Consequently, I had to use the second bike for a few laps with a different chassis configuration while my mechanics fixed the first one. When I got back on the track, I was unable to find the right pace in the last part of the session. A pity, because we could have kept improving, but I am confident for tomorrow that we are moving in the right direction”.
