With only the warmup held on a dry track, the MotoGP riders took on the Phillip Island race without any references in terms of settings and tyres. This was a difficult situation, especially for Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, which also had to do without the information their rivals had collected during the tests on the Australian circuit at the beginning of the season. Despite these conditions, Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista’s race was decidedly positive. Both riders rode their RS-GP machines into the points zone, just missing the top 10 and succeeding, along with their respective technical teams, in finding the solution for a rather complicated situation.
Stefan Bradl, starting from the eighth spot on the grid, stayed with the group battling for seventh place from the time the lights turned green. Only a less than perfect feeling in braking kept the German rider from attempting an attack, in any case skilfully finishing in eleventh place.
It was an extremely prudent race for Bautista. In the warmup session the Spaniard had complained of problems with grip and he administered the 27 laps of the Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix well. Alvaro battled to move up from his sixth row starting position, overtaking first Laverty and then Hernandez, with whom he engaged in a duel for twelfth place that was decided in the Spaniard’s favour during the final lap.
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