OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED FOR THE OPENING SESSIONS IN HOLLAND

MAVERICK AND ALEIX SOLIDLY IN THE TOP 10 AND WITH A POSITIVE PACE AS WELL

The first two MotoGP practice sessions in Assen (Holland) had both the Aprilias solidly in the top 10 and therefore straight through to Q2. First objective achieved and in terms of pace, Maverick and Aleix demonstrated good performance. 

Maverick finished out the day with the fifth-best time after proving to be fast in both sessions, both in race set up and with new tyres. It was a similar situation for Aleix, seventh, despite being disturbed on his flying lap. Tomorrow, both will be able to focus on preparing for the sprint race and the GP, and then they’ll be vying for a spot on the first four rows of the starting grid during the second qualifying session.

Lorenzo Savadori’s work continues, in his second wild card of the season, developing the RS-GP along with the Aprilia Test Team both with a view to the future and in support of the factory team’s work.
     
Aleix
"It’s good to be in Q2. A shame about my flying lap where I lost a lot of time behind Morbidelli. Then I had to relaunch, but I no longer had the best grip of the new tyre. In any case, I’m feeling good. It was not at all easy to be fast today. We still need to analyse the data well to choose the right tyre because the information from last year doesn’t seem to be indicative from this point of view."

Maverick
"I’m pleased with these first two sessions. I’m convinced, and I say this in all sincerity, that our potential is high and not yet fully explored. A difficult weekend like the one on the Sachsenring taught us a lot and we need to exploit that to improve – that’s the right spirit. The goal for tomorrow is to do a good lap in qualifying. I want to start as far forward as possible."

Lorenzo
"A rather positive day. I’m satisfied with our performance. Our purpose here is to work for Aprilia, with some new components, and then to try and do as well as possible on the track. We are all very close and now we’ll analyse the data carefully to see about taking another step forward tomorrow. I still had some problems with my arm getting tired but it has improved significantly, so I’m not worried about that particular aspect."