Disappointing Race 2 for Milwaukee Aprilia after tough weekend at Chang

Milwaukee Aprilia faced another difficult race in Round 2 at Chang with a 15th and a DNF. Starting 10th and 12th respectively after their results in Race 1, Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori again made solid getaways to stay with the pack and make up places. Eugene ran consistently in 6th before a red flag for a crash by teammate Lorenzo forced a restart. He then ran strongly in 5th place, but an unfortunate error caused him to drop his bike and rejoin in 16th place. He recovered to finish the race 15th with 1 point.
After a technical problem in Race 1 hurt his pace, Lorenzo suffered another, separate issue on lap 4 in Race 2. The problem resulted in a dramatic crash and a red flag for Lorenzo, who lost 8th place and was forced to retire. He visited the Medical Centre for treatment, but was deemed healthy and will be fit to race in Round 3 at Aragon.

The team now heads for Round 3 in Spain for the European stint of the 2017 season. They have a raft of  exciting upgrades to test at the Motorland Aragon circuit in 3 weeks’ time, which they will use to achieve another step in performance and fight for better results.

Round 3 of the 2017 season takes place at Motorland Aragon in Spain from 31st March – 2nd April.

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Eugene Laverty #50
Grid – 7th Race – 15th

The first half of the race was difficult as I started so far back, so I was extra aggressive to make up places. I was braking harder than usual in some places and worked the front hard, and in a way the red flag gave me time to regroup. After the restart the conditions were slippery so the front tyre was moving a lot. I had a lot of warnings and I tried to settle into my position, but I lost the front so many times and finally after 8 laps I crashed. It’s not nice to ride like this where you can’t push 100% without crashing, but we know where we have to improve. We’ve had so little time between Phillip Island and Chang to develop, but we’ve got some upgrades and new ideas coming for Aragon and I’m confident that we can make a big step forward.

Mick Shanley, Team Manager

It’s been a disappointing and difficult weekend for the team. We’ve shown promise and good speed, but at the moment there are a few other issues that aren’t allowing us to fulfil our potential. We’ll leave here to lick our wounds and analyse the weekend’s data in full, and we will work hard with Aprilia to understand why we have these issues. For Aragon we’ve already got a few things in the pipeline, so we need to wipe the slate clean, regroup and come back fighting in Round 3.