Phillip Island (Australia), 18 October 2015 - Alvaro Bautista finished the Australian GP in the points, riding his Aprilia RS-GP to fourteenth place, earning two points, and most importantly, reducing the gap behind the front runners in the race in confirmation of the excellent work done this weekend. In fact, from Friday the Spanish rider from Aprilia Racing Team Gresini demonstrated consistent progress in his performance. Starting from the sixth row, Bautista intelligently managed tyre wear, staying constantly in the points at fifteenth place until he was able to catch up and overtake Miller in the finale, moving up another position.

The race was not as positive for Stefan Bradl who, more hindered than his team mate throughout the weekend, was unable to find a decisive solution in the warm up session that would give him a better race pace. In the end he finished 21st.

ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)

“We have had better placements this season, but the positive thing here is that the distance behind the front runners was reduced to 37 seconds and that is definitely an encouraging result. My compliments therefore go to Alvaro and his team. We know that we still have a long way to go but these signs are important for the Team on the track and at home. On the other hand, after his good performance during practice at Motegi, it was a less than positive weekend, I'd say even abnormal, for Stefan, who couldn't find the right feeling from Friday. He'll redeem himself at Sepang.”

FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)

“We reduced the gap behind the leaders in terms of time over race distance and that is without a doubt positive. Alvaro lapped with good times which closes out a positive weekend for him. We need this season to collect data for the future and I believe that today, on a demanding track like this one where we had no points of reference, we collected some good feedback. Unfortunately for Stefan the weekend started off badly and even though we tried various changes the situation did not improve. We obviously want to do better with him as well, but this is all part of the experience that contributes to our growth.”