Bautista starts working straight away on his race setup, improving from one session to the next. Laverty sizes up his Aprilia RS-GP

Sachsenring (Germany), 10 July 2015 - MotoGP kicks off the second half of the season on the twisting German Sachsenring circuit. Alvaro Bauitista and Michael Laverty took on the first day of free practice with different intentions. If the German weekend is another stop along the Aprilia V4 development path for Alvaro, for Laverty it was, first and foremost, the time to gain confidence with the bike - which he already knows well, since he has been working as a test team rider - in race configuration.

A sliding crash this morning complicated things for Bautista who, fresh from surgery on his right forearm right after the Assen race, was bothered a bit by the injury. In the afternoon the Spanish Aprilia Racing Team Gresini rider in any case was able to get back onto the track, lapping on the same tyres with the clear intention of getting the bike set up for the race on Sunday, but also managing to shave almost 6 tenths of a second off his time from the morning session. Laverty showed consistent progress in FP1 but changing bikes slowed him up in the second session. In the end Bautista closed out the day with the 18th best combined time at 1’23,286. Laverty had the 24th time with 1’24,446.


ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)
“Another day of testing and hard work fine tuning. Alvaro was looking good going into turns and riding through them, but we still need to improve traction, so we need to work on improving grip in that condition. Laverty came out of the morning practice session satisfied, ending with the 23rd best time. However, in the afternoon he had to change the bike he had used in FP1, which is the one he felt better on, and with the other one he had a chattering problem that kept him from improving further.”

FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
“We are doing a lot of tests on the bike, as usual, but Alvaro, despite the crash which slowed him down this morning, is already in line with our expectations. Tomorrow we would still like to take a step forward because I think that we can really do well on this track. Laverty had a good day of practice and he started off working well with the team.”

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“This morning I took a spill on turn 11. The problem is that the spot where I had surgery on my arm last week opened up a bit.. But in the afternoon I was still able to ride. We used the same tyre for the entire session in order to find a good setting. Our most important goal is to improve grip at the rear. I need to feel the tyre more on the tarmac.”

MICHAEL LAVERTY
“In FP1 I felt very comfortable in the saddle every time I went out onto the track and in fact I did my best time in the last run. In the afternoon unfortunately I was only able to get one clean run in at the end of the session so I wasn't able to improve. In general I've got a good feeling with the bike. There's room for improvement in terms of grip. Today I tried the rear suspension link like the one Alvaro uses briefly and it seems to make things a bit better, so tomorrow I'll try it on both bikes.”