APRILIA RACING WSBK - Imola races

AS EXPECTED, THE TWO RACES IN THE IMOLA ROUND HAD THE APRILIA RIDERS BATTLING LAP AFTER LAP.

MAX BIAGGI'S TENACITY LED TO TWO FOURTH PLACES, IMPORTANT SPOILS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP.

EUGENE LAVERTY, AFTER A FIFTH AND SIXTH PLACE, CAN NOW LOOK FORWARD CONFIDENTLY TO THE ASSEN ROUND.

[Imola, 1 April – The more than 80,000 spectators in attendance at the Imola circuit had an exciting day with the show that the two Superbike races provided. The Aprilia Racing riders were among the key players at the "Enzo and Dino Ferrari" track, taking maximum advantage of a difficult track for the bikes from Noale.

Max Biaggi once again demonstrated his great stability. Although coming up against a few difficulties, starting from the Superpole yesterday, the Corsair gave it his all, managing not to lose sight of the front runners. Especially in the second race, after gathering important information during Race 1, Max and his team were able to close the gap with the leading riders, just barely missing the bottom step of the podium. Two fourth places are good spoils to take home from a championship point of view in the second race of the season on an historically difficult track.

"We couldn't have done any better than we did today – concluded Max – and the maths show it! Two identical placings, just off the podium, that I can say I'm fairly satisfied with. My only regret is for Race 2 because my team and I were able to make some improvements compared to the first, but unfortunately not enough to stay in the top three. We knew it would be difficult for us here and the low temperature didn't help. Now we're concentrating on Assen and how to react in order to make trouble for the leaders".

The fourth and sixth place Eugene Laverty brought home, in light of the eleventh place on the starting grid, represent a first step in the apprenticeship process for the Northern Irish rider with his RSV4 and team Aprilia. In spite of performing well in two generous races, Eugene was forced to give in to the superiority of his rival, salvaging two results that earned him precious points.

"A fifth and sixth place are not bad at all after the Superpole yesterday, but I won't pretend I wouldn't have liked to have been battling with the guys at the front. I got a good start in both races and in the second we made some good progress on the RSV4 but the pace of the group up front was just too fast. We need to keep working. These two races were useful for providing a lot of information on the bike, we'll work on that in the tests tomorrow in the hopes that that it will give us a hand even from the next round".