GP Aragón: PLEASANT START TO THE WEEKEND
Stefan Bradl’s summary after the opening day at the technical Spanish circuit was a positive one as he was pleased about his performance and also about his Aprilia RS-GP prototype.
Good conditions on Friday allowed teams and riders to start their preparations in full screen for this weekend’s round 14. For the 26-year-old German MotoGP rider in Aprilia Racing first practice session went positive particularly as he was able to use practice time to its utmost without any troubles. That Bradl concluded day one with a gap of just 0.8 second off the pace, increased confidence of course, even if the final touch in respect to the bike’s setup isn’t found yet.
MotoGP Action at the amazing MotorLand Aragon circuit resumes Saturday morning with FP3 before teams and riders have a final opportunity to prepare for qualifying with FP4 shortly after lunch time.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Aprilia), FP1: P13 – 1´50.368 (6/18) / FP2: P13 – 1´49.298 (15/18):
“Today we were competitive from the very first beginning. This of course is very gratifying. The RS-GP works well at this track and we’re already moving in the right direction. In addition, we have succeeded in fully process our today’s schedule for both sessions. This wasn’t always the case in the last weekends. Beyond that we also were able to do some laps with all the different tyre options in order to see how they work in terms of the race distance. We were also working on the electronics. Overall, it was a successful start into the weekend. But there is still room for improvements, particularly in breaking areas when turning into the corner. In this respect we often endure difficulties and because of the front tyre Michelin has brought to Aragon, this weakness even exacerbated.”
MotoGP™ Combined Free Practice Times:
1 #26 Dani PEDROSA / SPA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 1´48.429 (FP2)
2 #93 Marc MARQUEZ / SPA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 1´48.494 +0.065 (FP2)
3 #35 Cal CRUTCHLOW / GBR / LCR Honda / Honda / 1´48.510 +0.081 (FP2)
13 #6 Stefan BRADL / GER / Aprilia Racing Team Gresini / 1´49.298 +0.869 (FP2)