WSBK: Savadori 6th after race one blunder a “good result”

Milwaukee Aprilia had a very mixed weekend at Portimao, having started on pole position for race one – only to be taken out of by turn three of the opening lap. Then, just as they thought their luck was in with Savadori in a podium position, he crashed at turn one. The Italian made up for it on Sunday though, with a top six result from 11th on the grid, his second-best result of the year.

“When you start a race in P11 it’s never a good position to be in, but scoring points was a good result for us. I had a good start but I struggled a little at the beginning to pass. I finally made it up to P6 and I thought I could challenge Sykes for P5, but I started to get a strange vibration in the front which we need to investigate,” said the Italian, who is now 11th in the standings and one point from the top ten.

“It was then really difficult for me to keep the bike stable for the rest of the race, and I must also change something in my style for arrival and exit of the corners to improve this. I lost a bit of time fighting with Rinaldi and we must also work to be quicker passing riders at the start of the race, to make progress quicker.

“I hope to continue our development at Magny-Cours, and I hope we are closer to the podium ad big points. We were not far off this weekend and of course Eugene was quick too which is good for the team, so for sure I think we can have a good round.”

Heading to Magny Cours as the next round, the Aprilia has taken a pole position most recently in 2015 with Leon Haslam and the manufacturer took both wins at the circuit in 2014, with Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri. Savadori’s best result at the circuit came in 2016 when he was 5th and 6th, for the Red Devils Roma Aprilia team.