Without making any noise, Aprilia is making progress. The Noale firm had its best weekend of the season in Japan, placing its two drivers in the Top 10.
The latest arrival in MotoGP, the RS-GP sees its development continue its course and if we are overall very satisfied with the chassis, we recognize that the engine still lacks a little horsepower. We are actively working on it, especially since the confrontation with Ktm in Valencia will take on an air of defiance...
Drafted into Q1 after a fall in FP3, Álvaro Bautista was unable to defend his chances in Q2 due to another fall on his opening lap. He therefore started in 12th position. Stefan bradl, he had fallen in Q1 while he was temporarily leading the debates. Overtaken by his teammate and Scott Redding, he started the race in 13th position.
In the race, Alvaro Bautista got off to a good start before overtaking Redding and Petrucci then maintaining a constant gap on Pol Espargaro who was ahead of him, lapping in 1'47. He finished 7th, 23 behind Marquez and 3 seconds behind the Tech3 driver.
Stefan Bradl took 10th place following a mistake on the penultimate lap, while battling with Petrucci and Redding.
Roman Albesian: “A good race for us. We are continuing our trend in this part of the season. We are heading towards the Phillip Island track which has very different characteristics, and where we will look for further confirmation. The goal is to continue to improve, finding things that will allow us to further reduce the gap with the leaders. I am satisfied with the work of everyone, from the team to the drivers, including the guys who work at the factory.”
Alvaro Bautista: “A good race, the best result so far with Aprilia. Of course, the crashes made us gain two or three positions, but that's part of the race. I am particularly satisfied with the work done this weekend. After not having a good feeling on Friday, we were able to recover and move on to Q2. We showed that we could be fast on tracks with very different characteristics: from Misano, twisty, to Motegi with a lot of hard braking and acceleration. This is important because it shows that we have taken a step forward in all areas. We will try to confirm this in the coming races. I want to finish the season in the best possible way.”
Stefan bradl: “I'm not entirely satisfied with the race today. We had the potential to aim for a better result. Unfortunately, I lost a few positions immediately at the start, while during the race I didn't find the same braking feeling as I had yesterday in practice. Because of that, I made a few mistakes that definitely cost us some positions. In any case, being in the top 10 is important to continue our positive trend. We worked well over the weekend and we want to do the same at Phillip Island.”
