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Phillip Island - Australia, 24 February 2013
- The first and long awaited round of the 2013
World SBK season was dominated by Aprilia,
winning both races and placing a seal of
superiority worthy of the reigning World
Champion Team on the weekend.
Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli swapped the
top two steps of the podium and are now tied at
45 points to lead the world championship.
Aprilia is at top points in the world
Manufacturer championship with 50 points. The 4
cylinder bikes from Noale made a true show of
superiority at Phillip Island: a one-two-three
finish in Race 1 and a one-two for the official
riders in Race 2, with four RSV4s finishing in
the top six.
The victory in Race 1, which came at the end of
an exciting comeback, was a reward for Sylvain
Guintoli in his début race on the Italian bike.
Team mate Eugene Laverty crossed the line right
behind the Frenchman after leading for most of
the race and being kept busy in the last few
laps fending off attacks from Roman rider Michel
Fabrizio, also astride an Aprilia RSV4 for Team
Red Devils Roma. |
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In Race 2 Guintoli and Laverty got away during
the first laps, tailed by Marco Melandri and the
two private Aprilia RSV4s ridden by Fabrizio and
Davide Giugliano (Team Althea Racing) to take
the top two steps of the podium in reverse
position. This is Eugene Laverty's second win
with Aprilia and it is a result that comes,
above all, from the intense work done over the
past few days which was aimed at optimising tyre
performance down to the last taps. The track
record set by the Northern Irishman 2 laps from
the end is a demonstration of just how effective
that work was.
Michel Fabrizio's fourth place (Team Red Devils
Roma) and Davide Giugliano's sixth (Team Althea
Racing) confirmed the Aprilia RSV4’s superiority
on this fantastic Australian circuit.
“We got off on the right foot
– were Eugene Laverty's first words –
all the work from the past few days has paid
off. My Aprilia was fast and it performed as I
wanted it to from the first to the last lap. In
Race 1 I may have been a bit too conservative
with the tyres, still taking a nice second
place, but in Race 2 I pushed a bit more
decisively. At the end, when it was Sylvain,
Melandri and me, I tried and was able to get
away, shaving a few more tenths off my pace. The
track record two laps from the finish was nice
confirmation that we turned up to the races in
the best possible conditions. 45 points after
the first race are some nice spoils. I've never
started a season this well and now we'll be
thinking about Aragon and how to stay on this
path”.
Sylvain Guintoli
couldn't have asked for a better début: “It's
great to start off with a win! Quite honestly,
after the tests I know I could do well and from
the start my intention was to give it my all. My
goal has always been to win, but sometimes you
have to adapt to conditions. However, today the
setting was good, I didn't have any serious
concerns about tyre duration and everything went
according to
plan. In the first race I didn't get off to a
good start and I lost a few positions, but lap
by lap I found the right pace to move forward.
Eugene had gotten away well and when I overtook
him I managed to keep the distance and take this
important win.
In Race 2 Eugene had a bit more than me in the
last laps. He employed a strategy similar to the
one I used in the first race, but this is a
fantastic result for the team even if we are
just at the beginning of the championship”. |
