Aprilia ‘making important progress’ with new RS-GP

Aprilia have made important progress in the final three days of pre-season testing with the new RS-GP machine, after finally getting to take stock of their progress against their rivals, according to racing manager Romano Albesiano.

Late to the party after developing an entirely new bike for 2016 to replace 2015’s ‘laboratory’ World Superbike/open class hybrid, the Italian says that they’re finally making some progress.

“These three days, and particularly today, were really very important and positive for us. We did a lot of work, managing in the end to put in a good number of laps with both riders. This is what we need to grow a project that has just taken its first steps.

“I am quite satisfied with the consistency Alvaro achieved in the final outings with a used tyre, performance that makes me relatively optimistic for the maiden race. Maybe we were lacking a bit on the fast lap with both Alvaro and Stefan, but that definitely was not our objective. We are leaving Qatar with a lot of information that we will need to translate into action from now until the race, working night and day if necessary”.

The rider pair of Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista completed 210 laps over the test, but left in 21^st and 18^th respectively, some two to three seconds off the pace.