Phillip Island (Australia), 16 October 2015 - Busy with a track that is brand new to the Aprilia RS-GP, both Bautista and Bradl spent the first day of free practice at Phillip Island searching for the best tyre solutions. The exciting Australian track, with its fast turns, is a particularly demanding test bench for the entire Aprilia Racing Team Gresini which, in this rookie year in MotoGP, is tackling races on tracks with drastically different characteristics, building up the experience needed to develop the project. Both riders improved between FP1 and FP2 and at the end of the day, also characterised by rain showers that ended the first session early, they finished in 19th (Bautista with 1’31,260) and 21st (Bradl with 1’31,577) place.

ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)

“This is a new track for our bike and it is vastly different from the last track we took on in Japan. Today we focused a lot on tyre related testing with both riders as this is a track where tyres are particularly stressed. Now the teams will analyse the data to solve the main problem of poor grip. I hope the weather doesn't hold any surprises and that the results of what we are testing now can be used throughout the weekend."

FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)

“Phillip Island is always an extremely demanding track. There isn't a very big gap but we'll need to work hard to reduce rear wheel slip. In any case we are confident for tomorrow, when we'll be looking for a setup that will allow us to be more effective, especially from this point of view.”