First Day Of Practice At Brno For Bradl And Bautista
The two free practice sessions on Friday opened up the MotoGP weekend at Brno, an “old school” track that riders like very much. In the many laps taken, the official Aprilias analysed the performance of the various tyre options first and foremost. They were searching, as always, for the best compromise between speed and duration for race distance.
Stefan Bradl stated that he was satisfied at the end of practice, especially in terms of consistent performance. The German rider praised the progress made on the RS-GP setup, setting the goal for tomorrow as being faster on the flying lap. Given the good feedback in terms of race pace, an improvement in performance for qualifying would earn a few fundamental positions on the starting grid for Sunday.
On Alvaro Bautista’s side of the garage, the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini also focused efforts on testing the tyres, at the same time working on the number 19 RS-GP’s chassis setup and electronics. Right now, Alvaro’s biggest limits have to do with going into corners and the ability to hold the line, crucial factors considering the many direction changes that distinguish the Brno track. Stefan finished 17th in the combined standings, with a best lap of 1’57.471, followed by his teammate Bautista (1’57.569).
ALVARO BAUTISTA
“Today we worked primarily on the tyres, testing both the hard and the softest options. This track is definitely much different from Austria, so we went back to work on our standard settings. We need to get the bike lapping better. On this type of track that makes the difference. We used the standard engine configuration, but tomorrow we will have a more powerful specification, another very important factor on this track”.
STEFAN BRADL
“I am satisfied with the work done today, especially because our pace is much better than the flying lap. We were able to improve our settings consistently. What we are missing right now is performance on the flying lap. This will be our goal for tomorrow. We need to focus on qualifying, because a good starting position will allow us to take the best advantage of our consistent performance over race distance”.
