Alvaro Bautista struggled in wet Brno race

The weather had a strong impact on race Sunday at Brno. The heavy rainfall in the morning stopped a few minutes before the MotoGP start, forcing the riders to start in rain configuration, but with the possibility of a bike change during the race. There actually was an improvement in conditions, but the track maintained characteristics to allow the riders, albeit with some difficulty, to finish the race with rain tyres.

After the warmup, the sensations in the Aprilia camp were good, as Alvaro Bautista’s eleventh best time and Stefan Bradl’s good pace demonstrated. With the track drying out and intermediate conditions, however, the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini riders were unable to find the right feeling. This was a situation that, with a first-season bike like the RS-GP, is to be expected when conditions are particularly unpredictable.

In any case, Stefan Bradl was back in the points at the chequered flag, thanks to his 14th place finish, whereas Alvaro Bautista (who also made a pit stop to change bikes, going back out with intermediate tyres), had to settle for sixteenth place.

Alvaro Bautista
“The track conditions were really tricky today. This morning during warmup in the wet, the feeling was not bad, but in the race I struggled a lot, especially in braking. I always had the feeling I was losing the front, so I wasn’t able to push, whereas coming out of corners I was losing a lot more than my rivals were. Nine laps from the end I made a pit stop to change bikes, but even with the intermediate tyres we were unable to improve our position. Now we need to leave this race behind us and focus on improving the RS-GP, getting back to our level in the next round at Silverstone.”

Source – Aprilia Racing