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Category: Superbikes
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ALEIX AND APRILIA’S CHAMPIONSHIP DREAMS STAY ALIVE ALL THE WAY TO THE PENULTIMATE ROUND
ALL EYES ON VALENCIA NOW TO FINISH OUT AN EXTRAORDINARY SEASON RESPECTABLY
The tenth place finish taken by the skin of his teeth renders merit to Aleix’s determination and grit after a season which is already the best by far of Aprilia history. A title contender all the way to the penultimate round, still third in the overall rider standings, with a double second place in the constructors and team standings, these are extraordinary results for an Italian project made up of commitment, innovation, and humility which, just this year, tackled its first season as an official factory team.
The race today neither takes away or adds much to the analysis. These are important points to keep the race for third overall alive and to look optimistically towards the highly anticipated 2023 season.
Unfortunately, in the race Maverick once again confirmed the problems with grip he had found in his most recent outings, unable to make up positions after a less than perfect start. Eyes on Valencia for him as well, which will be the final race of his first full season with Aprilia and a chance to finish with a smile this championship where he has, in any case, performed brilliantly.
ALEIX ESPARGARÓ
"Battling for the championship title was a dream come true and, in any case, I am proud of what we accomplished this year. However, it’s still a pity not to have finished the season the way we deserved. In the last few races, something didn’t work right and we need to understand why. I’m convinced that we’ll be able to confirm our good performance next year as well. We have demonstrated that we have the speed. Now it's time to hit reset, head home, and get ready for Valencia. We can still make a play for third place and, above all, finish out this season with a good race."
MAVERICK VIÑALES
"It’s hard to find an explanation. All we have to go on is results and they tell us that we have work to do. The situation needs to be analysed, understood, and used to improve. For Aprilia and me this was our first year together and we still have a lot to learn. Like in Australia, we were competitive in spurts but at the end of the day, we were unable to fully exploit our potential and convert it into a good race. Now we’ll take a week off to rest up because it has been a long and demanding season and then all eyes on Valencia and the future."
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Team Gresini MotoGP and Enea Bastianini had an excellent show of strength at Sepang and once again proved to be among the main protagonists of the season. Another podium came for the #23 - which adds to the already excellent series of accomplishments of 2022 – at the end of a race battled with his soon-to-be teammate and likely next champ Bagnaia.
Bastianini managed both race and tyres well while trying to win after Martin’s early exit from the race. The battle with Pecco was an exciting one, with the 20 points secured today which are going to be key for an overall top-three finish in the season. Enea now only has to rely on himself to achieve this incredible result: one more point on Aleix Espargaró at Valencia would be enough to secure third place.
Fabio Di Giannantonio wrapped up his Malaysian weekend ten laps too early. The rider #49 tucked the front at turn five while battling for a top-15 finish with a big group of riders. The last chance to finish the year on a high will be at Valencia in a fortnight’s time.
2nd - ENEA BASTIANINI #23
“I’m happy, because 20 points are important to continue the chase to Espargaró, but at the same time I’m a little disappointed because when I was at the front, something changed and the feeling with the bike wasn’t the same. We’ll analyse the data to understand what happened… The important thing is that we showed once again to be among the top players in this category. We’ll try to wrap things up the best way at Valencia.”
DNF FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49
“I had a good started and maintained my position despite all the coming togethers of the first laps, but I saw immediately that we were losing traction compared to Pol Espargaró, who was ahead of us. Too bad, because we were in the group fighting for a top-15 finish and I pushed hard for this result: unfortunately I lacked feeling with the front-end and I eventually crashed. Now let’s focus on Valencia.”
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The fifth front row of the season for Enea Bastianini in Malaysia confirms the excellent momentum for the Italian rider, who logged the second-quickest time in today’s qualifying at Sepang. The #23, who was the fastest overall (with new track record) last February during official testing here, still managed to log an excellent 1’58.246secs and ended up behind only Jorge Martin.
In dry conditions, Bastianini has proved to have speed and pace to be a protagonist of tomorrow’s race, with the weather that will likely be the deciding factor for a title race that still hangs in the balance. Enea, who is currently fourth, 42 points behind the leader, will line up on the grid ahead of all other rivals, with the goal of getting to Valencia with a few options still open.
The Saturday on-track action for Fabio Di Giannantonio finished with Q1, as the #49 had a challenging time on day two in Malaysia. Despite a few setbacks, the Italian finished the day with an encouraging 16th position, which could help him get back in the points tomorrow.
2nd - ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (1’58.246s)
“It was a scorching hot day today, but the feeling was very good already from the morning. We made an important step forward with the front-end, and from there on things went according to plan. We tried again the medium front tyre in FP4, which we also used in qualifying. It will be a great battle tomorrow with Jorge and it won’t be easy to go for the win. Mathematics still don’t rule us out, but I only want to think about the race.”
16th - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (1’59.278s)
“I’m not happy, because we haven’t improved between Friday and Saturday. We made a few mistakes in today’s Free Practice and qualifying turned out to be the only positive session to try the bike. We’re starting from the back of the grid, and I hope we can address something during warm up and have a decent race.”
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INTERIM DAY IN MALAYSIA WITH VARIABLE WEATHER AND SOME TROUBLES FOR ALEIX
The first day of practice on the Malaysian Sepang circuit can be defined as approximate, at least in the Aprilia camp. In the morning, on a dry track, Maverick took advantage of the first session to get a feel for track conditions but without attempting a time attack in the end. Aleix, on the other hand, fell victim to a series of technical troubles that basically kept him from going out.
The afternoon was conditioned by heavy rainfall that delayed the start of the second practice session, then held on a track that was wet and slowly improving. Not very indicative conditions, with times far from the best time, so confirmation postponed until tomorrow.
ALEIX ESPARGARÓ
"It’s a bit difficult to comment on the day today because in the morning I had two problems on the two bikes that we were unable to solve in time. In the afternoon, in mixed conditions, it didn’t make much sense to push hard because we wouldn’t have been able to improve on our times from the morning anyway. In any case, I’m optimistic because I expect that I’ll be able to be fast with the right asphalt and no hindrances. I’ll get out on the track and push to the maximum from the first lap!"
MAVERICK VIÑALES
"This morning in the dry sensations were less than perfect. The level of grip I felt was very low and that kept me from being fast. In the afternoon, grip was still lacking and we’ll need to analyse the data to figure out how to limit this difficulty. At the end of the day, that’s the element that is limiting us the most because it conditions all riding situations, from entering to exiting corners."
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ALEIX AND MAVERICK UNABLE TO CONFIRM THE OUTSTANDING PACE DEMONSTRATED IN PRACTICE
It would be impossible not to talk about the disappointment in the race today at Phillip Island. Especially in light of what was demonstrated during the practice sessions, where Aleix and Maverick had shown the right feeling, pace, and confidence in race configuration.
The script for the race, on the other hand, took an unexpected turn. Aleix, after starting well from the fourth spot on the grid, began his race aggressively, staying with the leading group with the intention of not forcing the pace during the initial stages. However, there was an abrupt drop in performance that kept Espargaró from fending off the attacks from behind and forcing him to finish ninth.
Maverick, extremely fast in FP4, had to battle with an even clearer drop in grip at the rear which, in fact, brought any ambitions of a good result to an end early on in the race.
It is a situation that demands careful analysis by the team, both to ascertain the causes and to improve the working method.
ALEIX ESPARGARÓ
"In the early part of the race today, everything was going according to plan. I started well overtaking Fabio and managed to stay easily with the leading group. Even when I made a small mistake, I was able to quickly close the gap, even doing the second fastest lap of the race. Then the situation took a strange turn. The electronics began to cut a lot of power and, despite pushing hard to make up ground on the braking sections, I didn’t have the acceleration to stay with the others. It’s a pity. These are mistakes that we can’t make if we want to battle for the championship title, especially because we demonstrated that we have the speed to do so."
MAVERICK VIÑALES
"I don’t understand what happened today, to be honest. We still need to carefully analyse the data, but clearly something didn’t work right. I didn’t even come close to the pace that I had in the FP4 simulations on the same tyres. It’s hard to identify the reason now, so we’ll have to get to work and simply capitalise on this experience to improve."
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