World Superbike debutant Julian Simon made a respectable start to the Aragon weekend in 18th on his Milwaukee Aprilia.
Grand Prix veteran Simon has been called up to replace Lorenzo Savadori at Shaun Muri’s outfit this weekend, after the Italian hurt his neck in a crash early in Thailand’s Sunday race.
Simon, despite his vast experience in motorcycle racing, has never ridden a World Superbike before today. However, it was an experience he enjoyed immensely as he worked hard to adjust to the RSV4.
“I am amazed at the power the Aprilia RSV4 RF has compared to the 600cc I usually ride,” he said.
“It is my first time with these Pirelli tyres also, which I really like. The first practice session was not to bad, and it was important that I learnt the bike and how to get the best from it.”
Simon posted a 1m53.326s in the morning session, which put him 18th on the time sheets and just under two seconds off of temporary team-mate Eugene Laverty in 11th.
The Spaniard was unable to make any further gains in the afternoon due to a sprinkling of rain in the latter part of the session. As a result, he dropped a place to 19th and the gap to Laverty opened up to 2.3s.
Nonetheless, Simon reckons he was still able to improve his overall feeling on the bike in FP2 and has points in his sights for tomorrow’s opening encounter.
“The second session has some difficult weather, but I think we made some useful steps,” he added.
“We have free practice three in the morning to do more work, and I hope we can get a good Superpole result. For the race it would be really great to get some points, and I am going to make sure I enjoy it.”
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