Aprilia at the top
A memorable weekend for Aprilia in Jerez de la Frontera, where the Noale-based manufacturer achieved a result of absolute importance: despite not winning the Spanish Grand Prix, with Marco Bezzecchi still in 2nd place and leading the world championship, the four riders of the Venetian manufacturer finished the race in the top six positions, with the sole exception of Lorenzo Savadori, a wild card for this GP but forced to retire due to contusions sustained after contact with Razgatlioglu during the Sprint race.
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A race in two parts
A standing ovation result for official Aprilia and for the satellite team Trackhouse, which gave spectators a duel between its riders on the last lap, with Ai Ogura overtaking Raul Fernandez. An attack that earned the Japanese rider 5th place after recovering from eleventh on the starting grid: “We can be very happy with the race pace at the end – he commented – from the start until mid-race we struggled a lot. I lost a lot of time to Bastianini, but once I found the feeling, I started to catch up with the riders in front of me, but we need to improve the first part. It seems that when everyone has good tire performance they manage to exploit this extra advantage, but I struggle. I need to understand why, but at the same time it’s positive that in the second part of the race, when everyone struggles and I don’t feel it as much, things go well. Let’s keep these positive aspects and tomorrow we will have to work on the first part of the race.”
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Jerez not favorable
Sixth position, therefore, for home rider Raul Fernandez, who was also satisfied with his performance, but not 100%: “I’m happy with the GP – he added – it’s a fantastic place to race, you feel the support of all the fans and I’m always very happy to race in Jerez. I think we had a very solid weekend, even if it’s not the track where I can express my riding style as I would like. Overall, it was a positive weekend, but I still have something to improve on the bike and I think we need to find something in the time attack. This weekend we definitely took a step forward compared to the previous race, but there is still room for improvement. It will be important to start further up the grid because otherwise you lose a lot of time in overtakes, so this is the next point we need to work on.”
Read more Bastianini: “A solid weekend for me, I thought I’d get into the top-5”
