Spanish GP: Aprilia is on the track with the first upgrades

The first day of practice at Jerez de la Frontera marked the European début of the 2016 MotoGP season after the first race in Qatar and the two American rounds in Argentina and Texas. The Aprilia RS-GP made its first ever appearance in those races, proving itself well and demonstrating reliability and a solid technical foundation.

With the arrival of MotoGP in Europe, the technical development programme for the RS-GP begins in search of the best possible performance. Stefan Bradl also tried out the front aerodynamic fins on his Aprilia today on the track. Other changes involve the chassis and the electronics.

Both of the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini riders improved between the two sessions of the day.

The best result between the two riders went to Stefan Bradl who finished FP2 in 15th place with a time of 1’41.178 (almost a full second better than FP1), whereas Bautista finished in 18th with a time of 1’41.573 (also an improvement over his 1’42.140 of this morning). All of this in extremely compact rankings.

Alvaro Bautista: “We found a track with very poor grip. Already this morning we worked hard to solve a spinning issue. We tried various solutions, but we still need to improve grip more at the rear. We can do a lot better, so it means we'll have to work on the information we gathered in order to improve tomorrow, but especially to be ready for the race on Sunday”.

Stefan Bradl: “We tried a lot of tyre solutions. It is a complicated situation, especially for the choice on the front. I cannot say that I'm at 100%. Lap times are not bad, but with a few changes to the bike's setup we can improve more. We need to put together everything good that we found today, trying to find more grip at the rear and trying to improve the feeling with the front tyre. I also tried the wings and I must say that I can feel some benefits, although this is just a first impression”.

Aprilia Racing Team