---
title: "Mystery bike problem hinders Savadori on Friday"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/05/12/mystery-bike-problem-hinders-savadori-friday/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "SBK"
published: "2017-05-12T20:46:51Z"
modified: "2017-05-12T20:47:29Z"
---

# Mystery bike problem hinders Savadori on Friday

Lorenzo Savadori got his first home round of the season off to a terrible start, as a mystery issue with his Milwaukee Aprilia RSV4 left him well over three seconds off the pace down in 19th at the end of FP2.

Savadori came into the Imola round brimming with confidence after a strong Assen weekend, during which he qualified at the head of the second row and went on to finish the first race an impressive fifth on a much-improved RSV4.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/05/674831642.jpg)

However, he struggled from the off at Imola today, an as-of-yet-unknown bike issue robbing him of grip and stopping him from pushing for lap times.

“We had a difficult time in practice today, and a few problems that we need to fix,” the Italian said.

“I struggled with grip a lot and I couldn’t make fast laps at all, which was really a shame. At the moment I don’t know what the exact problem is, but we need to look at the data because there is a big issue somewhere on the bike.”

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/05/675167118.jpg)

Savadori was able to shave a few tenths off of his FP1 best in the afternoon session to a 1m49.844s, but this was still only good enough for 19th spot. To add insult to injury, he was over 1.5s down on team-mate Eugene Laverty in 10th.

Team Manager Mick Shanley was left similarly baffled as to what the cause of Savadori’s woes could be, and hypothesises that they could be a legacy of his race two crash at Assen two weeks ago.

“It’s one of Lorenzo”s home circuit, but he’s struggled today,” said Shanley.

“Maybe it is a result of his crash in Assen, but there’s still something we need to find on his bike. Rest assured we’ll be working as hard as possible to try ad find the answer for him tomorrow, and hopefully he can have a smoother day.”