Source: Supplied.

Next year’s factory signing Sam Lowes has made his debut aboard the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini RS-GP that he will ride in the 2017 MotoGP World Championship at Misano, Italy, this week.

Lowes came to grips with the RS-GP straight away on Wednesday morning, eventually logging a total of 60 laps on the opening day in the Moto2 regular’s premier class shakedown.

On the second day he continued getting to know a bike that is very different from the Team Gresini Kalex he rides in the battle for the Moto2 title this season. At the end of the day, with 69 laps on the sheets, everyone was satisfied.

“My first laps on the Aprilia RS-GP were an experience that I’ll never forget,” Lowes said. “When I twisted the throttle the speed I could feel was incredible – it was a brilliant feeling. On the second run, I had already begun to manage the power better and I tried to understand how to take the best advantage of it.

“There were a lot of new things to discover and they all astonished me. The first ones were definitely the power and speed, and then the carbon brakes. The third is the seamless gearbox, which is really incredible, and the fourth is obviously the electronics, which I felt comfortable with straight away.

“And then the RS-GP surprised me with an agility that I hadn’t expected, so much that the night before the test I was quite nervous because I was imagining a much harder bike to ride, but that’s not at all the way it was. Last, but not least, I want to emphasise how comfortable I felt working with the entire team. In short, it just went really well.”

Aprilia Racing managar Romano Albesiano added: “It went well. I’d say that we could not have had a better start. Sam got on a bike that he had never seen before, having to deal with a series of new features that range from the available power to the carbon brakes. He was at ease straight away and he also proved to be very analytical and precise in the indications he gave the team, as well as with his work method.

“Naturally, we were not looking at times, but even from this point of view we are quite pleased with these two days. We continued the RS-GP development program with Mike, focusing specifically on the new chassis parts and working on the electronics, especially in terms of torque output. We will obviously be taking every solution that proved to be effective to the races straight away.”

Test rider, Mike Di Meglio, was also on the track at Misano, continuing development of the RS-GP after the excellent work that Bautista and Bradl, the official riders, demonstrated in the last two championship races at Barcelona and Assen. The new features that were tested involved primarily new chassis components and electronics management strategies.