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Category: Superbikes
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AT THE GP OF SAN MARINO ON 9 AND 10 SEPTEMBER, APRILIA FANS WILL BE ABLE TO CHEER ON ALEIX ESPARGARÓ AND MAVERICK VIÑALES, ENJOYING THE MOST HIGHLY ANTICIPATED ROUND IN A COVERED GRANDSTAND
A GROUP OF SURPRISE GUESTS WILL LIVEN UP THE GRANDSTAND TO BRING THE FANS CLOSER TO THE TEAM AND, IN TRUE APRILIA TRADITION, TO COMBINE SPORT AND ENTERTAINMENT
THE PASSION FOR APRILIA WILL ALSO BRING CONCRETE HELP TO EMILIA ROMAGNA, THANKS TO FUNDS RAISED FOR CIVIL PROTECTION
Noale, 4 July 2023 - The fans are the true engine driving Aprilia’s wins in MotoGP and, after calling them together during Aprilia All Stars in May, the Italian brand will now give them the chance to cheer on Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales during the GP of Misano during the weekend of 9 and 10 September.
In fact, the Aprilia grandstand is back, created to provide a unique and memorable experience for MotoGP enthusiasts and fans of the Italian brand.
An entire sector of the covered “Tribuna B” will be reserved for Aprilia fans with numbered seats and a range of accessory comforts such as dedicated parking, both for those who arrive at the Misano World Circuit in cars and for those who decide to ride to the Adriatic Riviera on their own two-wheelers. All together, with friends or family, to cheer on Aprilia and to enjoy the spectacular MotoGP show.
All the fans in the grandstand will receive that Aprilia Racing kit which also includes the special T-shirt made to support residents of Emilia-Romagna, recently struck by flooding. The GP of San Marino will also be a chance to contribute to the fund raising efforts in support of the Emilia Romagna Civil Protection, a time to stand by and provide concrete help to a region which every motorsport enthusiast holds dear to their hearts.
The days will also be enriched by both special guests and by constant entertainment which, in true Aprilia style, will add just the right dose of fun to the adrenaline-filled activities on the track.
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BERNER, a German multinational company specialised in the Chemical sector and B2B hardware, is living a period of deep transformation following a rebranding process. The company, which offers chemical products as well as premium solutions for maintenance in the Mobility, handicraft and industrial sectors, has renewed its partnership with Team Gresini also for the year 2023. The relationship between these two institutions is a long-lasting one, with this season marking year 18 of history together.
BERNER has changed its appearance with a new layout and colours, but the collaboration with Team Gresini remains a solid and decisive one. BERNER’s new Smart Rebel philosophy aims at pushing past boundaries, while being open to new challenges. This though is in line with Team Gresini’s core, a group that never settles and catches any opportunity to be number one.
ANTONIO ZUFFELLATO – BERNER ITALIA MARKETING DIRECTOR
“The partnership renewal with Team Gresini is a reason of pride for our company. Not only because both believe in the improvement and great opportunities that only challenges can provide, but also because it reminds us that our solutions, which are used for preparing and cleaning motorcycles, are both reliable and performing. Sporting competition, passion for motorcycling, and the fact that we are indeed ‘smart rebels’ are key points that tie our worlds together and that make us partner in such an intense and fruitful way.”
CARLO MERLINI – GRESINI RACING MARKETING AND COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR
“The collaboration with BERNER is an important page in the history of Gresini Racing. This obviously is about its two-decade duration, but also and especially concerns the mutual values this partnership is based and developed upon. The collaboration with BERNER extends on the product side: BERNER has always been synonymous with performing and reliable solutions, from chemicals to tools and consumables, which are able to satisfy all needs and enable to tackle challenges, even the most extreme ones, that MotoGP competition puts ahead of us.”
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APRILIA RS 660 RIDERS EARN VICTORY, PAIR OF PODIUM FINISHES IN MOTOAMERICA TWINS CUP RACES AT THE RIDGE MOTORSPORTS PARK
RODIO RACING – POWERED BY ROBEM ENGINEERING RIDERS LANDERS, RODIO, NOW SECOND, THIRD, IN POINTS STANDINGS
SHELTON, WA- It turned out to be a near-perfect weekend for Aprilia rider Rocco Landers at The Ridge Motorsports Park. The Rodio Racing -- Powered by Robem Engineering rider and three-time MotoAmerica class champion was the fastest rider in practice, qualifying and both races at the northwest Washington State circuit. Though a post-race penalty reduced a victory to a podium finish on Saturday, Landers and his teammate -- and fellow podium finisher at The Ridge -- Gus Rodio are now just 11 and 13 points out of the lead in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup standings.
The Ridge’s undulating and technical 2.5-mile road course also proved to be a good match for the Aprilia RS 660. Aprilia riders claimed four of the top 10 grid spots in qualifying, half of the podium finishes and nearly half of the top 10 places in the weekend’s two Twins Cup races.
Landers and Rodio showed immediate pace in the first on-track session of the weekend. Landers led the field in Friday morning practice with a 1:48.063 lap time -- which was 0.525 seconds faster than the next-fastest rider. Rodio finished the session in fourth place, and Luke Luciano of Zone 9 Racing/EDR Performance and Tyler Duffy of Duffy Racing gave Aprilia four riders in the session’s top 10. Later Friday, Landers ended the first of two qualifying sessions on provisional pole and improved his best lap time to 1:45.546. Rodio finished the session fifth-fastest, and Jacob Crossman of 3D Motorsports was the third Aprilia rider to end the session in the top 10.
Landers didn’t improve his blistering lap time from Qualifying 1 in Saturday morning’s Qualifying 2, but still clinched pole position. Rodio found some additional pace in Qualifying 2 and joined his teammate on the front row by qualifying third. Also qualifying in the top 10 was Agustin Sierra of Top Pro Motorsports, who secured 10th on the starting grid for the round’s two Twins Cup races.
Saturday’s Race 1 saw Landers put in a dominant performance that was partially undone by a late-race infraction. Landers briefly lost and then re-took the lead during the short run to the first corner and didn’t relinquish the lead after that. He crossed the finish line in first place by a margin of 4.8 seconds. However, Landers passed a lapped rider in a yellow flag zone at the start of the final lap, and as a result was reclassified in third place. Rodio got a good start and finished the first lap running in fourth. After falling as low as fifth in the running order at the end of Lap 2 and nearly crashing on Lap 3, he gradually got closer to the battle for the last two steps on the podium but had to settle for a fourth-place finish. Landers and Rodio were joined in the top 10 by three other Aprilia riders – Top Pro Motorsports’ Alex Arango in eighth, Duffy in ninth and Righteous Racing’s Ray Hoffman in 10th.
The start of Race 2 was a near-mirror image of Race 1, with Landers getting an OK jump off the line but still leading the field through the holeshot. Rodio also dropped one position in the running order like he did on Saturday and was running in a lonely fifth place for the first couple laps. As Landers gradually built a big lead at the front of the field, Rodio gained pace as the race went on. By the end of Lap 4, Rodio had moved up to third place and finished Laps 9-11 of the 12-lap contest in second place. Landers took the victory in commanding fashion -- crossing the finish line more than 11 seconds ahead of the runner-up -- while Rodio lost one position in the closing stages of the last lap and finished third. Two other Aprilia riders – Crossman and Arango – finished in ninth and 10th place, respectively. More than half of the riders registered for the Ridge round – 16 of 29 – were set to compete aboard Aprilia RS 660s.
The MotoAmerica Twins Cup has a one-weekend break before it’s back in action July 7-9 at the Laguna Seca circuit in Monterey, California. More information on that round and the series can be found on motoamerica.com
Rocco Landers / Rodio Racing - Powered by Robem Engineering
“The end to Race 1 was disappointing, but my Aprilia RS 660 is working amazing. My favorite thing about the bike is how easy it has been to set up. We found a solid base setup at the Road Atlanta round, and we haven’t had to make any big changes since then. We actually didn’t change anything from Friday’s Qualifying 1 to today’s Race 2. I don’t see why we can’t get a couple 1-2 finishes at the next round at Laguna Seca and keep this momentum rolling.”
Gus Rodio / Rodio Racing - Powered by Robem Engineering
“It was a good weekend on my Rodio Racing -- Powered by Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660. It was a little bit of a learning curve for me, as I hadn’t raced here on a Twins Cup bike before. I think we did a pretty good job at figuring the bike setup out, and I’m happy to leave here with a podium finish after not scoring any points at the last round. I’m looking forward to racing at Laguna Seca and making more improvements there.”
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The first part of the season draws to a close at Assen with Alex Marquez back among the protagonists and in the higher part of the classification in today’s race. The Spanish rider was sixth at the finish line of an encounter characterised by high temperatures and marked by a long-lap penalty as he exceeded track limits. The #73 managed to score some important points with the championship standings that see him now 10th, only one point away from Quartararo.
Fabio Di Giannantonio’s race came to an early and in what was probably the best moment for the Italian rider, who was all the way down in 20th place at turn one; he managed to get back to ninth position and to get in a fierce battle with Nakagami. With eight laps left, the #49 lost the front at turn five and was forced to retire.
It is holiday time now for Team Gresini MotoGP who will be back in action with fresh energy in slightly more than a month at Silverstone, with one test at Misano with the Panigale scheduled for July 18-19.
6th - ALEX MARQUEZ #73 (10th in the championship standings with 63 points)
“We played our cards right: we solved some issues feeling-wise in the warm up and chose the softer tyre-option for the race, even though we knew we would have struggled in the second part of the encounter. After the 12th lap it was really challenging with the rear tyre, but we still managed to bag some important points and finish this first part of the season in a crescendo.”
DNF - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (16th in the championship standings with 34 points)
“Too bad really, because we were having a great race, a bit like in Germany. It’s clear that we must improve at the start as we lose too much ground but we’re improving in every race and this time we could have battled for the seventh-eighth position easily. The crash shouldn’t have happened, but with such a performance we’re going on holiday with a smile.”
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ALEIX ESPARGARÓ TAKES APRILIA BACK TO THE PODIUM WITH A HEROIC RACE, RIDDEN ENTIRELY WITH THE BIKE MISSING A WINGLET, LOST IN THE EARLY STAGES
MAVERICK SUPER-FAST, ALREADY IN THE LEADING PACK FROM THE START, CRASHES OUT TO MISS OUT ON A RACE WHERE HE SURELY WOULD HAVE BEEN A PROTAGONIST
IMPORTANT POINTS FOR LORENZO SAVADORI WHO, FAST AND CONSISTENT, BATTLED ALL THE WAY TO THE END TRYING FOR A TOP-TEN FINISH
Aleix Espargaró puts Aprilia back on the MotoGP podium in the Assen race. And he does it his way, in true team captain style, battling like a lion even in the face of the misfortune which robbed his RS-GP of the front right winglet in the early stages of the race after contact on the first corner. With the bike unbalanced, Aleix never lost contact with the trio battling for the podium and, in the race finale, he defended against Martin’s attacks. So, by just a few thousandths and thanks to a penalty levied against Binder, he took home a well-deserved third place, just nineteen tenths behind the race winner.
Maverick also had an outstanding start and, super-fast, settled into sixth place overtaking Oliveira, Marini, and Miller. However, during the fourth lap, when he was staying close to the group which then went on to fight for the win and the podium, a crash excluded him from the race and from a certain role as protagonist. In any case, he is still taking home the outstanding sensations he had throughout the weekend and the good performance – both his and the bike’s – in situations that had proved to be difficult in the past, such as the race start.
It was a fantastic race for Lorenzo Savadori, the Aprilia Racing tester who rode in his second wild card of the season at Assen and who confirmed his outstanding performance from the sprint race yesterday in the full-length race today. He battled hard for a top-ten finish which he missed by just over a second, finishing eleventh and taking home another five points in the world championship, not to mention a lot of extra data for development of the RS-GP.
Aleix
“We deserve this! We have been working hard and we need to continue to do so. Today’s podium allows us to go on holiday with a bit more peace of mind. I started well but lost part of the front winglet straight away after contact with Marini. In fact, the bike moved around a lot and it wasn’t easy to maintain the pace. When I caught up with Brad, I tried to put him under pressure because overtaking was not at all easy. I knew he would be struggling in the finale with the soft tyre and, in fact, he was sliding around a lot and he touched the green. I’d like to dedicate this podium to everyone who works with me and to my family. This is not a simple sport and being surrounded by a good group of people is truly important.”
Maverick
“This is a weekend that leaves me happy, even with the race. I really started strong and braked extremely well at the first turn. I felt really strong on the bike, which was working quite well, so I pushed hard. I crashed because I lost the front end and that can happen if you decide to really have a go. Anyway, it’s all good. We need to continue looking for the limits, pushing the bike to the max, and this can happen. Our potential is clear and when we are able to exploit it, we can battle for the very top spots.”
Lorenzo
"It was undoubtedly a great weekend. On a track where we do not test, and with a lot of things to try, just missing a top-10 finish in such a close race is truly wonderful. It’s a shame about a small problem at mid-race that forced me to slow down, just when I was rather easily recovering to move into tenth place. But nothing can take away this performance that does a world of good for me and for Aprilia, demonstrating the quality of our hard work."
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