Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Stefan Bradl labelled his Saturday at MotorLand Aragon as a “great day” for himself and the team after the German made it into the second part of qualifying for the first time this season.
The Italian team have enjoyed a strong weekend thus far in Aragon. Bradl ended yesterday’s running 13th on the combined time sheets, just two tenths of a second off of the top 10 at a track where horsepower is a key advantage.
The team only made slight changes to Bradl’s bike between FP2 and FP3, fettling what the German considered was already a good set-up on his RS-GP. Though this morning’s time sheets didn’t suggest anything special, the cooler temperatures holding them back somewhat, Aprilia looked like QP2 contenders from the off in qualifying.
On his second run, Bradl put in an impressive lap of 1m48.622s to go second fastest and just three hundredths of a second outside of Danilo Petrucci’s best effort. The team held their breath as Avintia’s Hector Barbera began lighting up the timing screens, but the Spaniard missed out by just seven hundredths.
Having used up all but one of his fresh medium rear slicks in QP1, Bradl couldn’t do much to qualify higher than 12th with a 1m49.083s. However, this is still the German’s best starting position of the season and lends further proof to Aprilia’s claims that they are moving in the right direction.
Bradl feels that he and his crew have prepared the bike as best they can for tomorrow’s 23-lap Grand Prix and is hoping for conditions similar to those seen in qualifying, as he reckons that this will allow him to enjoy a competitive afternoon.
“A great day for us. Going through to Q2 is an important achievement. We have not made any big changes compared with yesterday. We simply fine-tuned the set-up since the sensations were already good,” said Bradl
“This morning was not easy. We saw many crashes and I almost had a sliding crash myself at a certain point. In the afternoon the situation improved. I had a good feeling with my Aprilia and we were able to do a fast lap to go through to Q2. At that point I did not have any new front tyre to use, but my starting position makes me confident anyway. We have prepared for the race as best we can. If the conditions are like they were today we will be able to do well.”
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