The qualifiers were held today at Assen to define the starting grid for the Dutch GP which, in accordance with tradition, will be raced on Saturday.

As always, development continued on the Aprilia RS-GP. It was a positive day, especially in free practice, for Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, but in the end with some contrasting results for the two riders.

In fact, after the first two practice sessions where comforting progress was demonstrating, finishing FP3 in 17th place (with 1’34,668) and FP4 in 16th (1’35,307), Alvaro Bautista was hindered by a troubling vibration in the decisive session (QP1) which he finished with the 21st best time (1’34,736) that places him on the seventh row. Marco Melandri, with the 24th best time (1’36,376) will start from the eighth row.


ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)

“It was a positive day both in FP3 and in FP4. It's a shame that then, just in the decisive qualifying session, Alvaro had a vibration that significantly limited his performance, keeping him from repeating the level of performance he had shown in free practice. Obviously we'll try to solve the problem for the race, but it is still disappointing because we definitely could have taken home a better result today.”

FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)

“We were expecting something more in the qualifiers. Unfortunately a problem with chattering came up that kept Alvaro from improving. Without this problem we would have been able to start from a better spot on the grid, but now the important thing is to stay focused on the race. We can race a good Grand Prix, which for us means crossing the finish line and collecting points, but above all gathering information useful for developing the bike.”



ALVARO BAUTISTA

“This morning we focused on the setting to improve our race pace and the results were rather positive. Then in FP4 we tried to maintain a good pace on used tyres and in this case we also are quite satisfied with the results. In qualifying, however, the bike vibrated a lot in turns and I was unable to improve on my times. Now we'll try to figure out why and if there is actually a problem we'll try to solve it for the race. Our goal for tomorrow is still the same: maintain our pace, make it to the end and gather important data for development. If we are able to battle with the other riders to finish in the points, so much the better.”

MARCO MELANDRI

“I like this track a lot but we still aren't where we need to be with the chassis. Tomorrow I'll try to make a few changes to see if we can find the balance that I've been lacking to push hard. We'll see tomorrow.”