Alvaro Bautista welcomed by team after finishing 13th in Qatar

With very few kilometres under its belt, the Aprilia RS-GP 2016, in its maiden race, confirms the quality of the project and, ridden expertly by Alvaro Bautista, crosses the wire taking its first championship points in the Qatar GP. The first race for the Italian V4 brought with it plenty of questions on how such a young project would hold up. Bautista, welcomed in the garage by a long applause from the entire team, dispelled all doubts after a race where, after contact on the first corner which consequently made him run on, he followed, regained positions and finished in thirteenth place (for three championship points). Along with the pace demonstrated, this is an excellent start for this new season.

His teammate on the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Stefan Bradl, was also moving up through the pack and, after catching up Alvaro, had already moved into the points zone when a sliding crash finished his race early. But what counts is that the 2016 RS-GP demonstrated that it is a project with great potential, on which Aprilia’s MotoGP adventure can be built.

Alvaro Bautista
“It was important to us to finish the race, but it was not a walk in the park. I managed to start well, but on the first corner there was contact with another rider. That made me run wide and I found myself in last place with a lot of ground to make up. From that moment I set my pace. In the first laps I had a strange feeling with the grip and that is something we will need to check. From mid-race I began to gain on the other riders until engaging in a great battle with Miller and Laverty. In any case, thirteenth place is a good result for us. I want to thank the team, Aprilia and the partners to this project. They all worked nonstop to get to this first race.”

Source – Aprilia Racing