Milwaukee Aprilia struggled in Race 2 at Magny-Cours on Sunday, with Eugene Laverty crashing on Lap 2 and Lorenzo Savadori retiring on the last lap.

Eugene fell at Turn 16 on the second lap while locked into a fight with Sykes for P4. Exiting the corner Eugene lost the rear but was able to keep his RSV4-RF running. He continued and had a lonely race to his finishing position of P18.

Lorenzo had a slow getaway initially and had fought his way through to P8 by Lap 2. After shadowing Sykes in P7 he made a strong pass on Lap 7, and was soon on the hunt for Melandri in P6. His rapid pace let him reel Melandri in, and on Lap 9 he made his move. A retirement for Camier promoted Lorenzo to P5, and he maintained his pace until the final lap, when a technical problem with his bike forced him to retire from what would have been a season-best finish of P5.

There are positives for the team to take from Round 11 at Magny-Cours, including Eugene's strong second-half surge in Race 1 and Lorenzo's much-improved Race 2 pace, which demonstrate the big progress made with the new generation of Aprilia RSV4-RF.

The team next head to Jerez for the penultimate round of the 2017 season, as development work begins to look towards 2018.

Eugene Laverty #50 - Aprilia RSV4-RF - Grid: P3 - Race 2: P18

“The rain was coming down the whole race today but we were still pushing. It was just on the limit of not enough rain to make a difference to the conditions, but my crash on Lap 2 was a surprise. When Sykes passed me at Turn 16 I opened the throttle a little more to cover, but I lost the rear and I didn't see it coming.

I got the bike started again and continued, but it was very frustrating to go out so early after a positive race in the wet yesterday. It's hard to say how far I could have got after a lap and a half. I was maybe a bit too tentative in some of the cold left-hand corners because of the weather, but my Sector 1 time on the first lap was second quickest so it showed we had pace we'll never know for sure.

We've made big strides overall this weekend, and the progress in Race 1 was the first time we managed that. There are positives to take from that and with four races left we will work to end the season in good shape."


Lorenzo Savadori #32 - Aprilia RSV4-RF - Grid: P12 - Race 2: DNF, technical problem

"The bike felt good today. I started quite far down the grid and my launch was not so great, and I lost time passing lots some of the other riders. There was still some rain on the track but I could still push.

I think we had the pace and rhythm to reach the podium today. The bike was setup similar to Friday Free Practice, and it felt consistent which helped me to keep moving forward and making passes.

It was unlucky for us that we experienced a technical problem on the last lap and had to retire, because our pace was really good. But we have learnt a lot of new things from this weekend and it is promising that we can race like today. We are looking forward to Jerez, and we are already working hard to achieve strong results there."