Aprilia RSV4 wins WSBK in Australia

With Leon Haslam’s degut on the World Champion bike, Aprilia RSV4, and the new Red Devils team took home the double world title. This win marks the 50th for the Italian brand in the manufacturer standings. Year 2000 marked the first victory back here at Phillip Island on the RSV Mille ridden by Troy Corser.

It has been a consistent 5 years, and on the very potent RSV4, that Aprilia has won all its championships in the factory derivative category, taking 4 Manufacturer and 3 Rider titles and racking up 42 of their 50 total wins.

The Australian round puts Aprilia on the top both in the Rider (with Leon) and Manufacturer standings. Romano Albesiano, Manager, Aprilia Racing, said “After a long winter where the guys in the racing department worked hard we arrived here at Phillip Island with a lot of question marks. These were all erased by this fantastic Sunday where Leon came so close to bringing home a double win, in any case putting in an excellent result in his first races with the RSV4.

This promises to be a very well balanced season, with several riders in contention for the win, but I believe that our performance today once again confirms our competitiveness. Leon showed incredible courage and determination today, while Torres continues to improve and has already reached an enviable level for a rookie in this category.”

The other Spanish rider, Jordi Torres, also had an opening day full of positive notes. His first SBK race kept him in the top spots of the standings, battling with tough competition from Guintoli and Bayliss, he made an excellent fourth place finish. The ideal position brought the Race 2 in his reach as well, but unfortunately just after overtaking Sykes after a long battle for fourth, he slid into a crash ending his race, sustaining no physical damage.