Davide Giugliano has taken plenty of positives from the opening day of the pre-season Phillip Island test after finishing seventh overall. The Italian is Althea Racing’s sole rider in 2013 with the team switching from Ducati to Aprilia machinery and Giugliano appeared immediately at home on the RSV4.
Giugliano ended the day just under half a second down on pacesetter Leon Camier and believes there is potential to close that gap as the season progresses.
“If we stop and think that this is just one of the first tests we have done with the RSV4, the result can only be positive, because we are only a few tenths of a second from an official Aprilia rider who uses this bike for quite some time. But I know my potential, that of my team and that of my bike so I am not fully satisfied with what we did today as we could have done better. Initially, I found it hard to adapt with these tyres, but then my team prepared at best my Aprilia and I got my best time; both this morning and afternoon with worn tyres.”
“We must continue on this route and continue to work to the best of our abilities because there are still many days to the race and I am sure we can improve.”