Aprilia Racing earned a positive result in the long race at the Circuit Of The Americas, with four bikes in the points and an outstanding race by Marco Bezzecchi, who finished sixth after an extraordinary comeback ride. Lorenzo Savadori finished in fifteenth place. Trackhouse MotoGP Team riders, Ai Ogura and Raúl Fernández, also finished in the points.
Declared a wet race, there were moments of confusion with several riders who decided to pit just minutes ahead of the start in order to switch to bikes with dry track setups. Consequently, the start was delayed and the race reduced to 19 laps, with all the riders on slicks.
Marco Bezzecchi put in an outstanding performance characterized by a fast pace and spectacular overtaking. The Italian rider was protagonist of a spectacular comeback ride from the thirteenth spot on the grid, making up positions lap after lap and finishing with a well-deserved sixth place. It was a positive race for Lorenzo Savadori as well – subbing for Jorge Martín – who finished fifteenth, which puts him in the points zone.
Worth a mention is the performance by Trackhouse MotoGP Team’s Ai Ogura, who replicated his sprint race result, finishing ninth to be the second Aprilia in the top nine spots. His teammate, Raúl Fernández, completed the positive day for the Noale-based manufacturer, finishing twelfth and contributing to having four Aprilia bikes in the points zone.
MARCO BEZZECCHI
“I’m rather satisfied with this race. It was obviously an extremely complicated weekend and our starting position conditioned us a bit. The second half of the race was especially positive. I began to feel increasingly better, both physically and in terms of my feeling with the bike. I was overtaking well and braking accurately. My pace improved consistently, which allowed me to make up a number of positions. When I saw that I was lapping at excellent times, I really started having fun. It’s a pity they shortened the race by one lap, because I would have been able to make a play for fifth place.”
LORENZO SAVADORI
“I’m satisfied with the race because we took a big step forward. It was an extremely difficult weekend, with constantly changing conditions, but we had a good race pace and, most importantly, the things we tested gave us a rather clear direction to follow. In any case, these are elements that we will still need to check again during the upcoming private tests in Misano. It was a good race. We battled and we also managed to work a bit on speed and performance. It was positive to see the Aprilia bikes get close to the positions that count.”
MASSIMO RIVOLA
“On a weekend that was a bit complicated for Marco, partly due to some of our mistakes, it was great to see his speed in the race. Marco confirmed his qualities as a fighter, capable of overcoming and rising up decisively. In three races, Marco has consistently demonstrated outstanding speed, even if we have still not managed to reap our full potential. In any case, we know that this is all part of the process. It was great to have Jorge in the garage with us and that was undoubtedly an extra source of motivation. Hopefully he will be fit for Qatar and we’ll finally be able to see him riding the Aprilia. As for what happened at the start, the regulations undoubtedly need to be revised in order to prevent situations of confusion at the race start, because it did not make for a good show, not to mention being confusing for the spectators.”
