Alvaro Bautista places eleventh in Texas

After the Aprilia RS-GP machines’ positive performance in Argentina, the Circuit of the Americas in Austin also confirmed how the Italian project is growing. With Alvaro Bautista’s eleventh place and Stefan Bradl’s tenth in Texas, this makes five finishes in the points in the first 3 races of the season.

But the end result, also favoured by a few crashes, is not the only reason for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini to be proud. A good start by Alvaro Bautista, skilfully moving up no less than five positions on the first corner, allowed the Spanish rider to move into fourteenth place with a good pace. However, as occurred in all of the races held so far, Alvaro was the innocent victim of contact with another rider that forced him to ride a comeback race from nineteenth place, something he did steadfastly until six laps from the end, when tyre wear began to take its toll.

Alvaro Bautista
“A good race, but I cannot be 100% satisfied. I had a very good start, recovering several positions on the first turn and then contact with Baz dropped me back. When you have to come back from behind everything becomes more difficult. You have to physically force everything, deteriorating the tyre quickly and increasing the risk of making mistakes. It’s a shame because in the race we showed that we can be consistent and competitive. If I had stayed up with the second group, I’m sure we could have made a play for a better position. In these first three races, I have unfortunately never been able to show my potential because of external factors, but the results that we were able to achieve anyway give me confidence.”

Source – Aprilia Racing