Category: Superbikes

1. APRILIA RS 660 CONTINUES TO WIN IN MOTOAMERICA

   Posted on 12:00pm Tuesday 22nd Aug 2023

   GUS RODIO AND ROCCO LANDERS SHARE THE SPOILS IN THE TWO RACES IN PITTSBURGH The Aprilia RS 660's positive streak continues in MotoAmerica's Twins Cup category. The riders of the Rodio Racing - Powered by Robem Engineering team took both victories in the two races held in Pittsburgh, the penultimate round of the season. They are now respectively in first and third place in the overall standings of a championship that seems to be heading towards a decisive finale at the New Jersey Motorsports Park over the weekend of 24 September.  In Race 1 it was Rocco Landers who climbed onto the top step of the podium after starting from pole position, passing under the chequered flag with a lead of over three seconds over his closest pursuer. Third place in a sprint (42 thousandths gap) for Gus Rodio. Race 2 instead celebrated yet another one-two of the season, with Rodio ahead of Landers in a grid that saw no less than 16 Aprilia RS 660s out of 41 starters. The general classification therefore sees Rodio leading with 200 points while Landers is third at 14 points. GUS RODIO "This weekend we struggled a bit with the set-up of the bike in the second sector, the 'esses' and the straight. On Sunday we made some progress, but we took a risk with the tyres. We took a step in the right direction with the set-up, but the tyre was a bit slippery. I am satisfied with the results this weekend and we have extended our points lead a little ahead of my home race. At the next round there will be a lot of friends and family there and we will see what happens." ROCCO LANDERS "This is a good track for me and the team set up the bike very well. On Sunday morning I made a mistake and we took the precaution of changing the engine. Unfortunately, this change resulted in a loss of power. I did my best in the race and it was nice to get another one-two."

2. RED BULL RING – RACE

   Posted on 12:00pm Monday 21st Aug 2023

   APRILIA LIMITS THE DAMAGE IN AUSTRIA

   ON A TRACK THAT IS DIFFICULT TO DIGEST FOR THE ITALIAN PROJECT, ALEIX AND MAVERICK TAKE HOME IMPORTANT POINTS

   It promised to be a demanding weekend for Aprilia with the contribution of a track that is historically unfavourable, and the Sunday race at least partially confirmed this trend. There were signs of improvement, thanks to the hard work in the garage and in developing the new RS-GP. Maverick’s second place in qualifying, his frenzied pace in the Sprint Race, and the shrewd race for both riders today.

   Maverick built his race lap after lap, maintaining a good pace and arriving at the point of threatening for fifth. Once again today, a less-than-perfect start proved to be fatal, thrusting him into the first-corner chaos where he lost some positions (blamelessly this time as well). Under the chequered flag, the Spaniard finished sixth.

   Aleix is satisfied, praising the set-up improvements on his Aprilia in his overall assessment of the weekend, as well as his teammate’s performance. In the race, he had to manage wear on the rear tyre, particularly stressed in Austria, and he was unable to do better than ninth.

   ALEIX
   "It was an extremely demanding race physically. It was very hot and at the beginning I pushed as hard as I could to try and stay with the leading group. Then my performance dropped because I began to feel a drop in the rear tyre and I also had to manage fuel consumption. In any case, I’m fairly satisfied. Throughout the weekend, our performance improved and at the end of the day, I wasn’t too far behind Maverick, who rode at an extremely high level here. We knew that this track doesn’t suit our bike and particularly my riding style, but we took home some good points in the end. We’ll keep working, as always, to improve."

   MAVERICK
   "The start today was better than in the Sprint Race, but it wasn’t enough to maintain my position on the grid and I consequently lost more ground in the melee on the first corner. I squeezed the maximum from the bike for the entire race, making up ground and overtaking several times, but then I couldn’t close the gap behind the riders battling for the podium any further, which was already more than 2 seconds at that point. Right now, our priority is to improve the start. We have the potential to battle at the top and some circuits that are more favourable to us are coming up, so we need to be ready to seize every opportunity."

   LORENZO
   "I started rather cautiously in order to save my tyre and be able to make up ground in the second half of the race. Unfortunately, while I was keeping up with the group battling for points, I also had to manage fuel consumption, which limited my performance a bit. In any case, we were able to move forward with our scheduled testing programme and that is the most important thing."

    

    

3. TOP5 RESULT FOR ALEX A CONFIRMATION IN AUSTRIA

   Posted on 3:00pm Sunday 20th Aug 2023

   A positive weekend draws to a close for Alex Marquez and Team Gresini MotoGP. With today’s fifth place, the Spanish rider confirms the positive trend of results (he was fourth yesterday) and make another small step forward in the standings by narrowing the gap to Miller’s eighth place down to only four points.
    
   The #73 was definitely among the protagonists of today’s race as he did all he could to defend his podium position for half race before Bezzecchi and Marini had their way, fighting inch after inch. 
    
   Fabio Di Giannantonio’s encounter was an uphill battle from the start as he found himself basically stuck in traffic inside turn one. Today’s 17^th place was not enough to take some points home. The last two events before the long extra-European season will take place at Montmeló and Misano. 

4. ALEX AND GRESINI TOGETHER ALSO IN 2024

   Posted on 12:00pm Wednesday 9th Aug 2023

   GRESINI RACING EXTENDS ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH DUCATI   Few days ago at Silverstone, Alex Marquez scored his maiden MotoGP race win adding to his tally of one podium and a pole position in just a few months with Team Gresini Racing MotoGP. There was no chance this series of results would not have led to the partnership extension between the Faenza-based team and the two-time world champion.     Not only results on the plate for the Italian-Spanish combination, but also an incredible potential that was shown on several occasion already - with the new goal of being among the protagonists on a consistent basis in 2024.    Team Gresini Racing also made official a new agreement with Ducati Corse for the two-year period 2024-2025. The tally consists of five wins already, three podiums, three pole positions and 355 points bagged in less than two seasons. ALEX MARQUEZ  “I’m very happy to continue with the team. I’ve always expressed this desire of mine and when things go the right way it’s even easier to understand each other. To continue together for the next season is key in order to keep growing with this bike, and with this team everything is going to be easier. I would like to thank Nadia first and foremost, and then the whole team who made me feel at home from day one. We’ll keep growing and surprising.” NADIA PADOVANI GRESINI - TEAM OWNER “Alex is first of all a wonderful person and it was a pleasure to welcome him in our Gresini Family. The results speak for themselves and it was a logical step for us to continue together and raise the bar some more. He already scored a race win and a pole position in his debut year with Ducati, showing he could battle with the best from the get-go. We will now try to find some continuity together in the next season. I would like to thank the whole Ducati family as we’ll continue with them for the next two years; we already showed we are a good combination this year as well as in 2022… so the goal is to continue to excite and be excited.”   LUIGI DALL’IGNA – DUCATI CORSE GENERAL MANAGER “We are delighted to continue to have the Gresini Racing MotoGP team in the Ducati family for two more seasons. They are an extremely professional outfit and, over the years, have shown that they have the potential to aspire to great results. Last year they scored four beautiful victories with our Desmosedici GP machine, and this season they clinched a podium, a pole position, and a win in the last GP Sprint with Alex Marquez. We are sure that together we will achieve more success in the future and continue to grow race by race”.

5. APRILIA WINS IN SILVERSTONE!

   Posted on 6:00pm Sunday 6th Aug 2023

   ALEIX TAKES HOME A GREAT RACE WITH TECHNIQUE AND INTELLIGENCE THE CELEBRATION IS COMPLETE WITH OLIVEIRA FOURTH, MAVERICK FIFTH AND FERNANDEZ IN THE TOP 10 WITH THIS GREAT TEAM RESULT, APRILIA GIVES CONCRETE PROOF OF THE POTENTIAL DEMONSTRATED SO MANY TIMES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON The events on Friday in the dry had provided a glimpse of Aprilia’s potential in Silverstone, with Aleix dominating, and after a Saturday conditioned by the rain, today’s race confirmed the Italian team’s feeling on the English circuit. Aleix rode a substantially flawless race. Aggressive in the early laps, coming back from his twelfth spot on the starting grid, he locked in, even doing the fast lap. Bezzecchi’s crash set up a two-way battle with Bagnaia which really heated up when a few drops of rain demanded caution and cold calculation. In this portion of the race, Espargaró opted for a strategy that proved to be a winning one. He pressed hard closely, but without taking pointless risks, exploiting the better traction of his RS-GP for the decisive overtake on the final lap.  Adding to Aleix’s victory was outstanding overall performance for the Italian brand. On the Team RNF RS-GP, Miguel Oliveira came back to finish fourth ahead of Maverick Viñales, who was in the battle for a podium spot for much of the race. Raùl Fernandez closed out the top 10. The weekend was further enhanced by the events in Suzuka where, at the end of the 8 Hours, the Team Tatara Aprilia RSV4 1100 finished on the podium with third place in the NST class (twentieth overall).   Aleix "Today I realized straight away that I’d be able to do well. The Aprilia had traction here and I knew that I had some margin over Bagnaia on some corners. I preferred waiting until the final lap, especially when I saw a few drops of rain. There were some really slippery spots and it would have been easy to make a mistake. Besides that, I noticed that Pecco was managing his tyres and I didn’t want to risk being beaten in the finale. I am extremely happy for myself and for Aprilia. In the first part of the season, we did not earn the points we expected and deserved for various reasons, but we kept believing and working. This is the right path." Maverick "First of all, I’d like to congratulate Aprilia for the fantastic win. It was a great weekend, first with my podium in the Sprint Race and then with Aleix’s victory. We all did an outstanding job! My race started well, but unfortunately, I then lost some valuable seconds in my attempt to overtake Miller. My apologies to him for the manoeuvre, but I was sucked into Alex Marquez’s slipstream and at that point I had no choice but to release the brakes and go in. I pushed extremely hard to close the gap behind the leaders and that limited me in the finale. In any case, I’m satisfied with the weekend. I feel good on the bike and with the team. Our start has improved and we were consistently in the battle for the top spots. We’ll keep working hard, well aware of our great potential."