MotoGP arrives in Europa with the traditional round on the Jerez de la Frontera track. The entire Aprilia Racing Team Gresini worked on two fronts during the first two free practice sessions, continuing development of the RS-GP bikes and preparing for the races on Sunday.

After the first morning session which was used to determine a base setup for the V4 bikes from Noale, times improved during FP2 In the afternoon Bautista finished in 18th place, improving his times significantly. The hard work left to do, both on the track and in the technical briefings, will hopefully lead to further improvements. Melandri also improved his times (24th) compared to the morning session.


ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)

“After the conclusion of the early part of the season with the American rounds, we restarted with a setup which at this point we feel is fairly consolidated. Building around this base we began to work more on the details, even though we are still doing rather wide spectrum tests on engine management, controls and electronic strategies. In the second session we improved and Alvaro's performance shows it. Not too bad although there is still a lot of work to be done, especially on the bike's weight distribution and balance. This makes us hopeful that we'll be able to improve further.”

FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)

“Bautista's performance today is a great start to the weekend and, all told, Marco is also looking pretty much in line with the performance that Alvaro demonstrated. We weren't expecting any drastic changes but we can definitely say that the weekend got off on the right foot. We'll keep working hard and building up experience while waiting for technical changes that should arrive soon and which, I am convinced, will let us take a few more important steps forward.”

ALVARO BAUTISTA

“I tested various solutions, even frame setups, in order to continue improving my general feeling with the bike. I had hoped to draw from the experience of the testing we did here in November, but the conditions are too different and the track has changed a lot. In the morning I had to do a lot of work. The changes we made allowed me to improve in the afternoon but I still have work to do, especially in the braking sections and managing the throttle. Today I'll work with the team to try and find solutions that will bring more improvements during the sessions tomorrow.”

MARCO MELANDRI

“Today we basically started over from scratch since we found high temperatures and completely different conditions compared to the tests we did here in the autumn. That means that there is a lot of work to be done, although between the first and second sessions we were able to improve our times. Tomorrow we'll try to close the gap behind the riders ahead of us.”