APRILIA RACING:

The 67,000 hot and impassioned spectators present at the circuit were able to watch a splendid presentation of the Aprilia RSV4 which climbed atop the second tier of the podium with Max Biaggi in Race 1 and the third tier in Race 2 thanks to Marco Simoncelli.

As confirmation of the great progress achieved at the end of the season, this is the first time that the RSV4 brought both of its drivers to the podium during the two separate races.

The two Ducati Factory motorcycles took off like rockets followed by Max Biaggi’s RSV4, with Byrne, Rea, Simoncelli and Spies immediately behind them. The Ducatis set the pace and Biaggi had difficulty sticking with them until halfway through the race when he began to lose ground because of some errors. Simoncelli took advantage of the situation and once he managed to shake his competitors, he was able to catch up with Biaggi halfway through the race, passing him with the precision of a tightrope walker once he entered the last chicane. At this point an Aprilia battle began for third place, with Simoncelli giving his all and Biaggi behind, trying to catch up to him. In the end, the Romagnolo driver won out and crossed the finish line nine-tenths of a second ahead of the Roman driver securing his position on the third tier of the podium, just behind Fabrizio and Haga, during his debut in the reigning class of production derived bikes.

“When I took off, I immediately tried to stay with the Ducatis, which immediately set the pace,” declared Biaggi, “so in order to recover about halfway through the race I made two mistakes that resulted in me losing a great deal of the advantage I had accumulated, so in order to do better, I did worse. I wasn’t expecting Simoncelli to enter and in order to not hit the wall or Spies, we had to do some manoeuvring to stay up. In any case, it was a very positive week-end, I would have never hoped to have recovered so many points on Rea in the world championships, considering he was always so fast both in the test runs and the trials. I would also like to compliment Simoncelli who was very good, especially in Race 2.”

“It was a wonderful and very intense week,” said Simoncelli, “it was just Monday evening that I decided to participate in this SBK race and the results were excellent. When I arrived here at Imola, my objective was to enter the Top 5 in Race 1, which I managed to do until the fall at the Tosa. In Race 2 I started off much better and I set a good pace until catching up with Biaggi. I didn’t want to make the pass I did at the Variante Bassa, but I ended up long in the straightaway and in order to not end up in the gravel I took the chicane the same way and it ended up fine. I must thank my Superbike team, that 250cc and Aprilia, for the help they provided and the great opportunity that they gave me.”