POSITIVE OPENING DAY AT THE FINAL PRE-SEASON TEST IN QATAR
Stefan Bradl and Aprilia Racing Team Gresini stay for a three-day test in Doha this week, which is the last occasion to make further on-track development with the Italian factory’s all-new 2016 MotoGP prototype before the championship get underway in two weeks’ time.
Conditions were good on Wednesday which allowed Bradl to summarize a positive opening day even though he had to report a minor crash. Whilst the 25-year-old rider escaped unhurt, it took a long time to fix the bike so he lost many valuable track time though Bradl was able to confirm the bike’s potential after the team has had a roll-out last week in Qatar already. For the remaining days, time schedule during this test is equal to the opening round during the evening hours, Bradl and his crew are focus to make the first settings to the Aprilia RS-GP now.
Not at least due to the crash Bradl wasn’t able to lap around the 5 kilometres track in Qatar as planned but he was recorded in his best effort in 1´58.066. Testing’s in Qatar to proceed on Thursday.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Aprilia) – P19 (1´58.066, 14/26):
“It was definitely a good start into this test even though I wasn’t able to went out on track for more than 26 laps only. The reason was a low sider early on why we lost a lot of time. We had to stay in the garage till the bike was fixed again. Track conditions were good today with a lot more grip compared to our private test here last week. Overall everything is going according to our development programme although the project is still young. In any case we got the confirmation about that fact that the new bike has huge potential as well the feeling with is really good. From this point of view, we’re optimistic to make progress soon as we already achieved a point where to start working on the setting as well with the suspension in order to improve in this area too. Of course there is a lot of work ahead of us and we still need a lot more laps to understand the package even better. However, today’s first out underlined that we are already on the right path.“
Standings Losail-Test – Day one:
1 Jorge LORENZO / SPA / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / Yamaha / 1´55.452
2 Maverick VINALES / SPA / Team SUZUKI ECSTAR / Suzuki / 1´55.880 +0.428
3 Valentino ROSSI / ITA / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / Yamaha / 1´55894 +0.442
19 Stefan BRADL / GER / Aprilia Racing Team Gresini / Aprilia / 1´58.066 +2.614