SBK | Motul Dutch Round: Aprilia needs to change gear

It cannot be said that 2018 started under a lucky star for Milwaukee Aprilia: from Australia onwards there was in fact a succession of injuries, serious ones for both regular riders and technical problems

A troubled start that allowed the Noale manufacturer to scrape together just 32 points in the constructors' standings and to count Eugene Laverty's eighth place, out at least until Donington due to injury, as the best result on the track: a very bitter haul indeed.

Results which are the result, first of all, of a technical delay, if it is true that Lorenzo Savadori on Sunday, after the second race of the Pirelli Aragon Round, in which he finished tenth behind the debutants Michele Rinaldi and Toprak Razgatliouglu, commented: "Very tough race, I didn't have the pace. I had the pace to get to around sixth place but I didn't have the momentum needed to overtake. We lack top speed, this is the sector where we have to work."
We remind you that by regulation the RSV4 RW has the limiter at 14.700, like BMW, Yamaha and MV Agusta, while Honda
at 14.300 and Kawasaki at 14.100.

Furthermore, bad luck also came into play: in Race 1 Savadori was involved in an accident together with Camier in Torres, having to then arrange the set up in five minutes before the race restarted.

On the other side of the garage, Davide Giugliano was called up a few days before the Pirelli Aragon Round to replace Eugene Laverty and he too had no luck: after a first heat which ended in 13th place, he was forced to make a pit stop in the second “to change the rear tire, due to the higher temperature of the asphalt. I feared failure, and I didn't want to fall."