The Althea BMW Racing Team makes a positive start at Aragón

Alcaniz (Spain), Friday 1 April 2016 – The Althea BMW Racing Team is at Motorland Aragón in Spain for round three of the Superbike World Championship, with the weekend’s action also incorporating the first Superstock 1000 FIM Cup event.

On track today with its two SBK riders, Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger, and its Superstock 1000 representative, Raffaele De Rosa, the Althea BMW squad made the most of the practice sessions to work on the set-up of its BMW S 1000 RR bikes in preparation for the races taking place on Saturday and Sunday.

In the two Superbike timed practices, which took place in cool but dry conditions, Torres and Reiterberger worked hard with their technicians. At ease on his ‘home’ track, Jordi continued to make progress throughout the day, recording a best of 1’51.728 in the afternoon session and thus qualifying for Superpole 1, in twelfth position. While Reiti used the first session to adapt both himself and the bike to the Spanish track, he made a big step forward in the afternoon, improving on his best by 1.5 seconds to record a 1’51.735, just a few thousandths of a second from his team-mate, to close thirteenth. He too will participate in tomorrow morning’s Superpole 1.

The STK1000 riders were out on track this morning for their very first practice of the 2016 season. After a rather tough opening session, De Rosa made good progress during the afternoon practice, to conclude day one in seventh position with a best time of 1’53.875. He will be back on track tomorrow for official qualifying.

“At first my feeling was not that good this morning as the temperature was so low but I improved towards the end of the session. In session two, we continued to make progress, step by step, and by mid-session I was feeling really good, with a new set of tyres I even moved into first place for a short time. The lap time was not so fast but I thought it would be enough to reach Superpole 2. I tried to improve on that time, but the bike was sliding around and I did not manage to do so. I’m disappointed because despite my good feeling, I wasn't able to better my lap time, but we have ideas for tomorrow and will work together to improve.”

“Today was difficult, as I wanted to do my best but did not achieve all that I’d expected to. This morning conditions were very windy, then in the afternoon we decided to make some changes to the bike, moving in a different direction in terms of set-up. Unfortunately, the result was not what we'd hoped for. So we need to analyse the data to understand which path to take tomorrow. I hope tomorrow is a positive day, in terms of both the race itself and also our understanding of the bike, so that we can continue to evolve throughout the season..."

“The second session went a lot better than session one. This morning, we were among the first on track, and it was very dirty so in doing so we immediately ruined a tyre. Seeing as we only have a limited number to use in this category, we need to manage them effectively. Anyway after this second session, I can say we’ve improved on our time and believe we have a good base on which to continue to work tomorrow."