Alvaro Bautista 17th in tricky conditions on day one at Austin

The second round of the 2015 MotoGP season, which for Aprilia represents the return to the top class, opened up in the rain for the first session.

In the afternoon the track complicated things for the riders as it progressively dried out, forcing them into a situation where they were able to push hard on slicks only during the last part of the session.

For Aprilia Racing Team Gresini this was just the second stop in a long season where the bike and team will have to grow, motivated by competition on the track in the highest level motorcycle racing championship.

Alvaro Bautista, after finishing the morning FP1 in eleventh place (wet), finished with the 17th best time, putting 2’07,419 on the sheets.

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“Today we had the chance to lap in the wet. We tried different power management maps, especially coming out of turns, and I was quite comfortable. This is important because the forecast is uncertain and we need to be ready in case we have a wet race. In the afternoon with a half dry track I used slicks only in the second part of the session. Now we need to work to improve grip, especially in the middle of turns, and power management. We’ll be working on these aspects tomorrow.”

Source: Aprilia