Bautista Rides His Aprilia Rs-Gp To Eighth Place In The Catalunya Gp. Bradl Also In The Points
In the best performance so far by the fledgling Aprilia RS-GP, Alvaro Bautista authoritatively takes a nice eighth place finish in the Catalunya GP that was raced with rider Luis Salom in everyone’s thoughts.
Penalised by his spot on the starting grid, Bautista rode an intelligent race, making up positions from the start. But he gave the best of himself in the last third of the race when he consistently lapped at times that were higher only to those of the riders battling for the top spots, overtaking Redding, Miller and, in the final two laps, Barbera and Petrucci. In the end he finished with an eighth place that represents one of the best performances by the Aprilia RS-GP in its début on this track.
The growth of the RS-GP project is marked by both Aprilia Racing Team Gresini riders placing in the points: Bradl, twelfth across the finish line, also rode a comeback race where he moved up six positions with respect to his initial spot at the start.
ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)
“We are truly pleased. It was a race that the team and the riders managed very intelligently. Yesterday in practice, partly due to bad luck – and I am talking about Alvaro’s crash at the end of FP4 that forced him to ride the second bike in qualifying – we missed taking a position on the starting grid that would have let us finish farther forward. The race was a marathon based on optimum tyre management. In the last eight or nine laps Alvaro was lapping at a top-5 pace. We are still lacking a little something on the flying lap with fresh tyres, although we are not in bad shape, but the general balance of the bike and power management are approaching a good level. This is an important result, made on the track, that boosts morale. Stefan also rode a good race, even if he is not as much of an expert as Alvaro at managing worn tyres, in the end he finished easily in the points, completing the entire team’s great performance”.
FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
“This is a fantastic result that the team was building toward throughout the weekend. Yesterday we did a lot of work with used tyres in order to have a bike that would perform well in every phase of the race. And the hard work paid off today in the race. It’s a shame that the crash yesterday forced Alvaro to ride the second bike in Q1, preventing him from finishing in a better position, which was definitely within reach and that could have led to an even better finish today. Stefan also rode well and finished in the points, leaving several other riders behind, so we did well today”.
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“I am truly satisfied with this result that came thanks to the hard work of the entire team. During practice I had a few difficulties. The bike was unstable and we had to work hard to find a setup that would conserve the tyres. In the warm-up session I decided to increase the restriction, so in the first laps of the race I could see that the others had an advantage coming out of the turns. I wasn’t unnerved by that. I stayed calm, trusting in the quality of the work we had done. In fact, in terms of pace, the choices we made proved to be the right ones. I made a lot of nice passes and, especially in the second half of the race, I was really able to be fast. It’s a shame about the starting spot, which in no way reflects our level. Unfortunately, after the crash in FP4 on Saturday I just wasn’t able to find the same feeling in qualifying. Tomorrow we will test on this track and try to continue improving, with our thoughts already on Assen, where we will find very different characteristics”.
STEFAN BRADL
“We achieved a good result in conditions that were not very easy, but I cannot be entirely satisfied. In fact, our times were quite a few seconds off Alvaro’s, whereas usually our pace is quite similar. Now we need to investigate this aspect in view of the next races. The positive side is that the only person who overtook me in the race was my own teammate. We figured out that in these conditions, where tyre management makes the difference, even the slightest change has a significant impact on the bike’s performance. We’ll use the tests tomorrow to look at this situation more in depth and to have some clearer ideas for the coming races”.
