News

Reigning STK1000 Champion Lorenzo Savadori ended the first day in Aragón in fifth, earning himself direct access to Saturday’s Tissot-Superpole 2 session. Alex De Angelis ended the day in eleventh and was declared fit to race after having been operated on recently and starting the day with a view to being reviewed after FP1.

With some difficulties in the morning due to the cold and wind, the confidence of both IodaRacing riders grew throughout the day on their Aprilia RSV4 RF and were able to gather important data during the second session, in the afternoon.

Savadori did 19 laps in the second session and managed to take 3 seconds off his lap time from FP1 after making a lot of improvements working with his technicians. There were also marked improvements for Grand Prix winner De Angelis in the other side of the garage, who only just got pipped to the Top 10 in the final few minutes when Nicky Hayden (Honda) and Alex Lowes (Yamaha) put in a late charge for Superpole 2.

De Angelis underwent further surgery to fix problems in his right arm last week, after the terrible accident suffered by the San Marino rider during the GP weekend in Motegi in 2015. He did however clock the top maximum speed in the session with his Aprilia RSV4 RF, recorded at 319.5 Km / h.

"This morning we had some problems,” explained rookie Savadori. “We'd need to ride more, much more, but we are not discouraged. In FP1 we knew we had to change something in our bike chassis set up, so in the second session we didn't arrive unprepared. I was able to ride close to the best riders of the category and I am very happy with my lap time, even though, as a racing rider I want to be more and more fast. I'm really happy to have gained the access in Superpole 2, is already a good result, however, tomorrow we will have to work carefully to get a good place on the grid. "

"For me this lap time was absolutely unthinkable only few days ago,” added De Angelis. “I came here with the idea of trying to race and almost I'm in the Superpole2, so much better than expected . Clear that there is a hint of regret, I am out by only 35 milliseconds, however, we also have the qualifying session tomorrow to try again.” The Moto2 winner is set on graduating from Superpole 1. “We worked well, including the session in the morning and in the afternoon I managed to improve a lot of seconds. We must continue to work so well because I am still recovering from surgery I only had last week. I have to admit that I don't feel pain, but only a little, where the doctor removed the stitches, and this makes me feel alert. But I have nothing to prevent me from staying on track."

Both IodaRacing riders will be looking to attack Aragon once again tomorrow, as Race 1 gets underway at 13:00 local time (GMT +2).