Category: Moto GP

1. ENEA BACK TOWARDS THE FRONT AT COTA

   Posted on 12:00pm Saturday 9th Apr 2022

   #AmericasGP Free Practice. The Gresini Racing MotoGP Team is back up to speed at the Circuit of The America in Austin, Texas, courtesy of an excellent performance by Enea Bastianini from already from the early minutes of this opening day of action. His fourth-quickest lap-time is the icing on the cake, as the pace shown in both Free Practice sessions bodes well for the rest of the weekend.
   
   Fabio Di Giannantonio showed an interesting progression that took him all the way up to 18th place in day one, with a remarkable improvement across the two sessions. Great teamwork allowed him to constantly improved his feeling with the Desmosedici GP21 machine on one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar.
   
   4th ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (2’02.284s)
   “I was able to recover the feeling I had at the start of the year, which we basically missed only in Argentina. We’re surely competitive although there’s till work to do. We performed really well on the single lap and that’s very important ahead of tomorrow. We still need to focus on the braking area and on long corners – but as I said the overall set-up is already there. During my best lap I got distracted a little due to a crash at 11 by another rider, meaning we could have done even a little better. We still have to make a decision regarding tyres: I liked the harder option at the front-end, but it’s too early to choose.”
   
   18th - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (2’04.367s)
   “We started off quite badly this morning, but we worked well, and with some important changes to the bike I was able to get more confident aboard my Ducati. I need to avoid focusing too on lap-time performances and results and rather think about finding the best feeling aboard the bike… the rest will come.”

   Today, in the Gresini pit-box there was a chance to do a little “time travel” between past and present with Toni Elias, who took part in quite a special photoshoot. 2006 and 2022 got together in the name of Fausto, to celebrate the last two MotoGP race wins by Gresini Racing.
   
   SPECIAL GUEST – TONI ELIAS
   “To be wearing those leathers again was absolutely fantastic. This is part of my life and surely a great memory, and I can still feel the emotions of a race that will surely remain in the history books. I would like to thank Gresini Racing for this moment, also because it’s important to celebrate Enea’s victory – maybe this is the best way to remember Fausto. This time is family to me, and it was a pleasure to share this moment with them.”

2. APRILIA ARRIVES IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE GP OF THE AMERICAS

   Posted on 12:00pm Thursday 7th Apr 2022

   AFTER ALEIX ESPARGARÓ’S HISTORIC VICTORY IN ARGENTINA AND WITH MAVERICK VIÑALES IMPROVING RAPIDLY, APRILIA TACKLES THE TEXAS ROUND WITH CONFIDENCE

   IT’S TIME FOR ANOTHER DEMANDING CHALLENGE FOR THE 2022 RS-GP, WHICH HAS PROVEN TO BE A WINNING BIKE

   Aprilia arrives in Texas, the venue this weekend for the Grand Prix of the Americas, in unprecedented great form. Fresh from the historic victory earned by Aleix Espargaró in Argentina and with Maverick Viñales back to battling for the top spots, the Aprilia Racing team is preparing for the fourth round of the season with confidence, despite the treacheries of the Circuit of the Americas, one of the most demanding on the calendar and recently partially resurfaced.

   Thanks to their outstanding performance in the first three Grand Prix races, Aprilia is also leading in the overall rider standings with Aleix Espargaró at 45 points, whereas Maverick Viñales has now moved up to 13 points.

   During the MotoGP weekend in Austin, the North America Talent Cup will also be making its début. This is the single-brand series part of the “Road to MotoGP” path which races with the Aprilia RS 250 SP2 bikes. After the success enjoyed on the national level with the Italian FMI Aprilia Sport Production Championship, the “small” 250 from Noale, designed to make rider growth easy and gradual, has now embarked overseas - a testament to Aprilia Racing’s growing commitment to grooming young talent.

   ALEIX ESPARGARÓ
   “These past few days have been very emotional for me and I was extremely happy to receive so much affection from the fans and the entire paddock after the exciting win at Termas de Rio Hondo. But now it’s already time to think about the Austin race. We are well aware that it will be one of the most complicated ones for us, because we struggled a lot last year, but we’ll try to take full advantage of this positive moment, continuing to have fun. Up to now, we’ve been competitive on three very different tracks and even in Indonesia in the wet, a condition that I have never been particularly crazy about, the bike was truly fast. We have been consistent and this is demonstrated by the fact that we are also in the lead in the championship, but we are keeping our feet firmly planted on the ground. The important thing is to continue this trend without making mistakes.”

   MAVERICK VIÑALES
   “Aleix’s victory was a huge confidence booster for the entire team and for me, because I got back to battling to the top positions. We knew that the race in Argentina would be very important for us. We were seeking confirmation after the settings changes we tried in Indonesia, and we found it. Now I feel like I’ve found a good base to work on to improve even further and I can’t wait to get back in the saddle. Plus, the Circuit of the Americas is one of my favourite tracks, where I’ve always been fast. That said, we’ll keep going with the same mentality. We are aware that there is still much to learn and in Austin we simply want to make another step forward in terms of me adapting to the bike, because that is the only way we’ll be able to grow and improve further.”

3. TOP TEN FOR ENEA AT TERMAS, DIGGIA UNINJURED AFTER CRASH

   Posted on 12:00pm Sunday 3rd Apr 2022

   #ArgentinaGP race. Team Gresini Racing MotoGP always tends to look at the bright side of things and today at Termas de Rio Hondo de best news comes from Fabio Di Giannantonio who got away with just a few bruises after the heavy crash at turn 11 with only two laps left in the third Grand Prix of the season.
   
   The racing weekend was squeezed into a two-day event due to the ‘notorious’ MotoGP crates which prevented both Gresini standard bearers from finding the perfect feeling on what is known to be a challenging track to interpret.
   
   It was not a GP to remember for Enea Bastianini either. Today’s top-ten finish left a bittersweet taste in the Italian rider’s mouth as he struggled to get up to speed on the Argentine track. The few points scored allow him to remain in the higher part of the standings: Bastianini will fly out to Texas in third place, 9 points away from the top of the standings.
   
   10th - ENEA BASTIANINI (3rd in the championship standings)
   “We’re not satisfied with how today went. We were not comfortable with the bike, and we lost the good feeling we had in the warm up this morning. We really didn’t understand this race well. I did have a decent pace, but I was too often at the limit. Maybe with a more ‘traditional’ weekend we may have had a few more options, but the goal was vey different. We had too many issues with the rear-end of the bike. We scored a few points, so let’s think positive and look forward to Texas.”
   
   DNF - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
   “It wasn’t a positive weekend. We had very little track-time and unfortunately, I ended up crashing out of the race with a few kms left to ride. It was a difficult moment, in a very fast corner. Fortunately, I got away with a few scratches and a hit in the abdominal area – without major consequences. Obviously, we were aiming at a different result and a more normal weekend, but we need to keep our heads down and keep working.”

4. ARGENTINE SATURDAY ENDS WITH Q1 FOR TEAM GRESINI MOTOGP

   Posted on 12:00pm Sunday 3rd Apr 2022

   The Argentine racing weekend has finally begun with an unusual Saturday, in which were squeezed both free practice sessions and qualifying. All the crates of Team Gresini only arrived during the night, which required an incredible amount of effort for mechanics and team staff who worked tirelessly from 4am in the morning until the end of the day.
   
   Qualifying were not kind to Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio, even though the former – who currently leads the championship standings – was only 22 thousandths of a second away from getting into Q2 and will therefore start tomorrow’s race from thirteenth place.
   
   Di Giannantonio did not manage to shine on the Argentine track and will line up on the twentieth spot of the grid for the Argentine Grand Prix. The Italian experienced a little step back from the same day in Indonesia two weeks ago, although his feeling with the bike is still improving.
   
   Tomorrow’s race will indeed get underway at 15:00 local time (GMT -3), with a double warm up (40 minutes) in place to allow riders for a bit more of track time before the third race of the season.

   13º - ENEA BASTIANINI (1'38.566)
   “This was a difficult day. It was one of those days that start on the wrong foot and that are hard to change. We missed the access to Q2 just for a few thousandths of a second both in FP2 and Q1. We had a few issues that we maybe addressed a little too late, but these days happen, and we need to accept the outcome. What we can do is to keep working to be competitive tomorrow and try to put together a good comeback race. I felt the bike a bit more ‘mine’ in today’s final laps, and the direction we’ve taken is the right one.”

   20º - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (1'39.126)
   “It was a challenging day for us because we made a mistake this morning: we kind of ran around in circles as we focused more on my feelings than on the track conditions, which changed quite a lot during the day. We took a wrong direction with the set-up, but we went back to previous settings and we improved – which also doing some damage limitation in qualifying. It’s a pity because we lost some time, but these things can happen when you’re a rookie. Fortunately we’ll have 40 minutes of warm up tomorrow and we’ll try to make the most of them.”
   
   

5. MOTOGP RETURNS TO ARGENTINA

   Posted on 12:00pm Tuesday 29th Mar 2022

   AFTER THE INDONESIAN RACE, APRILIA RACING SEEKS CONFIRMATION ON THE TERMAS DE RIO HONDO TRACK

   After a two-year absence in 2020 and 2021, skipped due to the health situation, MotoGP returns to do a round in Argentina on the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. A race the not only embraces the passion of all South America, but which also represents an important sign of gradual return to normalcy for the Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing Championship circus.

   The start of the season was important, both for Aleix and for Maverick. While the former solidified his good performance in Doha with a solid race on the Mandalika circuit too, for Viñales, the Indonesian race represented a potential turning point in his progress adapting to the new Aprilia RS-GP.

   Both are therefore headed to Argentina with the right dose of enthusiasm, with the goal of further confirming the progress demonstrated thus far by the entire Aprilia Racing Team.

   ALEIX ESPARGARÓ
   "I am extremely happy to be returning to Argentina to race. It’s a country where you really feel the support for our sport, as well as a track where I have always felt rather good in the past. We got off on the right foot this season and now we have two races in a row ahead of us where it will be fundamental to hold the line and earn as many points as possible before returning to Europe."

   MAVERICK VIÑALES
   "If it were up to me, I’d have raced in Argentina as soon as the Indonesian race was over. At Mandalika, we made an important step forward in terms of settings which did not come out fully in the race due to the difficult conditions, but which makes me highly optimistic for the upcoming rounds. I'm convinced that we are extremely close to finding full confidence but in the current MotoGP championship, every tiny improvement takes a lot of work for both the team and the rider. It’s a matter of putting a lot of details together and creating a perfect synergy but we are on the right path."