FIRST DAY OF MOTOGP PRACTICE IN GERMANY
Bautista starts working straight away on his race setup, improving from one session to the next. Laverty sizes up his Aprilia RS-GP
Sachsenring (Germany), 10 July 2015 - MotoGP kicks off the second half of the season on the twisting German Sachsenring circuit. Alvaro Bauitista and Michael Laverty took on the first day of free practice with different intentions. If the German weekend is another stop along the Aprilia V4 development path for Alvaro, for Laverty it was, first and foremost, the time to gain confidence with the bike - which he already knows well, since he has been working as a test team rider - in race configuration.
A sliding crash this morning complicated things for Bautista who, fresh from surgery on his right forearm right after the Assen race, was bothered a bit by the injury. In the afternoon the Spanish Aprilia Racing Team Gresini rider in any case was able to get back onto the track, lapping on the same tyres with the clear intention of getting the bike set up for the race on Sunday, but also managing to shave almost 6 tenths of a second off his time from the morning session. Laverty showed consistent progress in FP1 but changing bikes slowed him up in the second session. In the end Bautista closed out the day with the 18th best combined time at 1’23,286. Laverty had the 24th time with 1’24,446.