Testing gets underway for Alvaro Bautista at Qatar

The first session of night testing on the Qatar circuit had Alvaro Bautista and teammate Marco Melandri working hard testing the many changes made by the Noale factory.

The tests, organised over three days, are the last trials scheduled before the launch of the MotoGP season, which will also be held on this circuit and at night on 29 March.

The four RS-GP bikes available for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini at Losail represent yet another step forward with respect to the versions initially seen during the Spanish tests at Valencia and Jerez and then during the February test sessions in Malaysia.

Along with changes to the frame came new electronic management strategies. These are all changes that need to be tested throughout a season that promises to be one of trial and growth for the Italian team, which chose to jump straight into the racing mix a year ahead of the originally scheduled plans.

Bautista was able to lap more consistently to “smooth out” his RS-GP, and this is the most important information for a project that needs time and testing to grow.

In the end 53 total laps were put in, 34 for Bautista (with a best time of 1.58,459) and 19 for Melandri (1.58,990).

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“Today we worked quite a bit on the electronics to improve going into turns and rear grip. Even after changing bikes I still continued testing the electronics. Toward the end of the session we also tested the new material. We had some good results, so tomorrow we’ll pick up our work from here to improve further.”

Source: Aprilia