Ninth place and third row for Alvaro Bautista in Malaysia: best qualifying of the season for Aprilia

In both sessions, Bautista confirmed his good feeling on the Malaysian track, riding his RS-GP respectively to tenth (FP3) and ninth (FP4) place, going through to Q2 with a best time of 2’01.078. Bradl finished in sixteenth and fifteenth time respectively, in any case satisfied with the job done in view of the race.
The Aprilia Racing Team Gresini rider’s Q1 session was not particularly lucky, due to a crash that cost Stefan precious time to increase his confidence on a treacherous track. His final sixteenth place forces him to ride a comeback race tomorrow.

Bautista’s performance in Q2 was good, holding onto seventh place for a long time until a few rivals improved just in the final seconds to relegate him to ninth place. The third row, which is Aprilia’s best spot on the grid so far, places Alvaro among the potential protagonists in the race tomorrow.

“I am happy because yesterday I had already demonstrated that I could go through to Q2. Today we did a good job. I feel very comfortable with the bike, no matter what the track conditions are, and this is particularly important for the race. In qualifying, with respect to FP4, I felt a bit less traction, but we were able to earn a good starting position anyway. I am not setting any goals for tomorrow, because the key to everything will be the weather conditions. From this point of view, we are well prepared for the various possibilities”.

“Today we were not very lucky in terms of timing. The need to map the engine with new specifications cost us a few laps, which are important since in these conditions the feeling is developed by staying on the track as much as possible. In any case, I am pleased with the basic setup we have. On this track there are plenty of places to overtake and our pace is definitely better than the sixteenth place earned today, both in the wet and on a dry track”.