STEFAN BRADL SIGNS FOR APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI
The 25 year young Bavarian rider has signed an agreement with the Italian manufacturer to race the factory’s Aprilia RS-GP for the rest of the 2015 season.
Bradl will join his new team and ride the MotoGP Aprilia bike for the first time at this weekend’s Indianapolis Grand Prix, which marks the opening round for the second part this year. As well-known Aprilia’s factory efforts in the MotoGP™ World Championship led by the team of former champion Fausto Gresini. After a difficult start with Forward Racing’s Open bike Yamaha Forward during the first third of the season Bradl proved his speed to be a serious Open category winner with best placed Open rider and wining the class during the Barcelona weekend. But in a nasty fall at the TT Circuit in Assen two weeks’ later he suffered a broken scaphoid on the right hand for which Bradl was forced to sit out for his home round at the Sachsenring mid of last month. In previous races Bradl collected nine points. However, his Forward Racing team run into financial difficulties during the summer break, so the former Moto2 Champion was forced to look for other opportunities in order to be able to compete for the remaining season.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Aprilia) – WM-Position 19 (9 Punkte):
“The past few weeks were probably the most grueling of my career. After the setback, having to sit out at my home race, it got worse with the turmoil surroundings about Forward Racing. I already was declared fit for the Indianapolis race when I received the message, Forward has to withdraw from this race due to well-known reasons. Of course this was a slap in the face for me because I feel fit and I’m very eager to comeback to racing very quickly again. But fortunately things has changed for a better way after endless negotiations and countless telephone conclusions during the last week. I can hardly express my relief in words about the conclusion of the agreement with the Aprilia Racing Team; I’m really, really happy that I’m able to continue my career without any unwanted break. At this point I would also like to express my thanks to all parties equal align that everything worked out in such a short time. I’m very, very grateful and overjoyed at the same time to race in a proper factory team for the rest of the season. This makes me proud and I consider this opportunity as a tremendous one for me. From the first races with my new team we may not expect too much though. First of all I must familiarize with my new team as well to get used to the bike. Both are the main targets for Indianapolis Grand Prix. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward even more to the second half of the season after these difficult weeks in the past. Of course even more due to all the new, interesting challenges that await me. Thanks again to all for their confidence in me and this most unique opportunity that is offered to me in Aprilia and Team Gresini.“