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Category: Moto GP
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YET ANOTHER SOLID FRIDAY FOR ALEIX AND APRILIA
LORENZO DISCOVERING THE SECRETS OF THE SACHSENRING
The 52 degrees Celsius on the asphalt (31°C air temps) did not keep the MotoGP riders from doing some interesting times already on the first day of practice at the Sachsenring. The hilly German track was the setting for yet another solid Friday for Aleix Espargaró, who has by now become a fixture in the top part of the rankings with his Aprilia RS-GP.
With an eye to race preparation, the Spanish rider still managed to take seventh in the combined standings. He also demonstrated an outstanding pace, fundamental in view of the 30 laps scheduled for Sunday.
For Lorenzo Savadori, the Sachsenring is basically a brand new track since his references during his 125 and MotoE career don’t count for much. It is certainly not an easy layout, but Lorenzo tackled it gradually, improving more than 7 tenths between the two sessions and limiting the gap behind the lead to just over one second.
ALEIX ESPARGARO'
"I know it may seem strange, given the final position, but I think this was the best Friday of the season so far. I felt good straight away. I'm able to be fast without taking excessive risks and the grip helps us, significantly higher than it was in Barcelona. I didn’t put together a perfect performance on my flying lap, but I'm competitive in terms of pace. This will be a track where the tyres will be highly stressed, also because of the weather conditions, so working well on that aspect is important."
LORENZO SAVADORI
"I liked coming back to this track. The last time I raced here was in 2019 with the MotoE bike. Clearly, everything changes with a MotoGP bike. The track gets a lot smaller, but I must say that I had fun. We worked a lot with used tyres. We need to improve the second stage of the race because in Barcelona that was a limiting factor for us again. When I put on the new tyre, I did two decent laps, but I think that our potential is higher. We are still lacking a bit, especially on T2, but I continue to improve and, for now, that is still the main objective."
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APRILIA RS 660 CONTINUES TO WIN IN MOTOAMERICA
AT ROAD AMERICA POLE POSITION AND SOLO VICTORY FOR KALEB DE KEYREL, NOW LEADER OF THE TWINS CUP CHAMPIONSHIP
The Aprilia RS 660 continues to win and amaze in the hard-fought Twins category of the US MotoAmerica championship: already the protagonist at the beginning of May of a sensational debut in the inaugural race in Atlanta, with three Italian bikes in the first three positions, this weekend the brand new mid-range sports bike from Noale scored another success on the demanding Road America circuit at Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin.
A confirmation of the dynamic and engine qualities of the RS 660, homologated just before the start of the championship and now already among the favorites for the final victory of the prestigious US series for twin-cylinder bikes.
Kaleb De Keyrel, riding his RS 660 prepared by the Robem Engineering team, was the author of a weekend of dominance, he first obtained the pole position with a margin of over 8 tenths of a second place, then in the race he kept an unapproachable pace for his opponents, crossing the finish line with almost 8" of gap on Jackson Blackmon (Yamaha).
Thanks to this success, his second of the season, De Keyrel has also taken the lead in the overall standings with 76 points, 10 more than his closest rival, Chris Parrish (Suzuki).
“I felt comfortable right from the start with my Aprilia. It felt great being able to go out and put down quick laps right away, that helped me feel comfortable to push the bike more at the start of Qualifying 2 on Saturday, and we were able to go quite a bit faster than everyone else. Drafting is a huge factor here at Road America with its long straightaways. I knew I was going to have to put my head down from the start and try to break the draft. I was able to do that pretty quickly and was able to focus on just being smooth and smart with the lead I had. The Aprilia RS 660 handled like a dream: it was easily the most comfortable I’ve felt on the bike.”
Aprilia RS 660, launched last October, is revolutionizing the concept of sportiness, it is so light and effective between the curves that, although designed to be used daily on the road, it is capable of transforming itself with a few changes into an extremely fast and fun bike between the curbs. The dynamic qualities, the rigour of the frame, the reduced weight and the exciting performance of the new 100 HP twin-cylinder engine enhance the driving pleasure of a motorcycle that, after being one of the most eagerly awaited novelties, has proved to be fun and enjoyable, able to give emotions in every situation of use.
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The partnership between Gresini Racing and Neiko – the Treviso-based communication agency – continues in 2021. A nationally renowned company, Neiko has been developing communication strategies for the last 20 years and has been a technical partner of Gresini Racing for the last half decade – contributing to the digital growth of the company.
Video productions, infographics and web solutions are only a few of the services Gresini Racing receives from Neiko as part of the communication strategy. For further information www.neiko.it
LUIGI TONON – CEO NEIKO
“We continue this partnership with Gresini first and foremost due to the many similarities between the two companies, even though they belong to very different worlds. We’re united by important values such as continuing improvement and being at our very best, always. Thanks to this partnership we can also show our skills at international level, which is surely a great visibility boost.”
CARLO MERLINI - GRESINI RACING MARKETING AND COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR
“Neiko has been an important asset for Gresini Racing for a few years now and we’re happy to continue with this partnership also in 2021, while making the most also of a great friendship with Luigi and his partners, which are an integral part of the #GresiniFamily.”
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RENEWED COLLABORATION BETWEEN SPRINT FILTER AND APRILIA RACING
The positive start of the MotoGP season for Aprilia Racing is also an opportunity to renew a consolidated technical partnership with Sprint Filter. A leading high performance air filter and intake system manufacturer, Sprint Filter equips not only the RS-GP bikes ridden by Aleix Espargaró and Lorenzo Savadori, but also the Italian racing department's entire range of sport bikes. Bikes like the new RS 660 Trofeo, the most recent jewel of the track produced by Aprilia Racing, or the special “X” editions of the Tuono V4 and RSV4 and the Aprilia 250 Sport Production bikes, protagonists in the category of the same name established in 2020.
Founded in 1952, Sprint Filter began making high performance air filters and intake systems, extremely innovative even then, working in collaboration with the best fuel system manufacturers and the top teams. From the early fifties, research and development of new filtering fabrics and intake systems have been at the base of the creation of Sprint Filter products.
Thanks to the experience gained in more than sixty-five years of activity, which makes it the oldest company in the world for the automotive performance filtering segment, Sprint Filter is able to meet any type of need, from a simple sport filter to replace the original, all the way to entire intake systems in carbon fibre, fibreglass and various plastic materials, with filtering elements that use special, precision calibrated polyester fabrics.
From 2021, Sprint Filter modernised its production systems and launched a new bike line, becoming the leading supplier in MotoGP, providing products to more than 70% of the teams - collaboration which guarantees constant development of the product.
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IN THE CATALUNYA GP ALEIX WILL START FROM THE THIRD ROW
POOR GRIP DOESN’T HELP LORENZO SAVADORI
For his home GP, Aleix Espargarò will start from the first spot on the third row after qualifiers where he did the seventh-best time, less than 4 tenths behind the pole position time and less than two tenths from the front row. It could have been an even better position if it hadn’t been for a mistake on his last flying lap.
In any case, both rider and bike are consistent, with an RS-GP that continues confirming its competitiveness and Aleix consistently in Q2 from the start of the 2021 season.
On the other hand, Lorenzo Savadori, is struggling with poor grip, even crashing out in FP3. In fact, the Montmelò is characterised by asphalt that provides extremely low grip, making the riders’ job particularly difficult, especially those in their rookie year like Lorenzo.
ALEIX ESPARGARO'
"To be honest, I must say that, after Qatar, this is the track where I am least able to exploit the strong points of the new RS-GP. So, it may seem strange, but I am satisfied, because in spite of this, I was able to be competitive both in terms of pace and on the flying lap in qualifying. If I had been able to finish the last lap, I may have been able to start from even farther forward, but I risked a high side on the same turn where Jack crashed. Tyre choice will clearly be fundamental here. I still need to meet with the engineers, but we’ll analyse the situation extremely carefully."
LORENZO SAVADORI
"We tried some different solutions today, but without finding any great improvements. In qualifying, I lost a lot of time on the last sector. I could have done a bit better, but we are still close. For the race tomorrow, choosing the right tyre will be extremely important, and then managing it well with the electronics strategies. That is the factor that can really make the difference here."
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