Just eight days after its
team leader Max Biagi wrapped up the World Superbike (WSBK)
riders' title at Imola, at Magny-Cours on Sunday the
Aprilia factory outfit collected the remaining points
required to seal its ascent to dominance: scooping the
manufacturers' title, the important honour coming in
just its second year back in the series.
Biagi's thirteen points
from race one at Magny-Cours, riding the stunning
red-white-and-green Alitalia-sponsored RSV4, put the
manufacturers' title beyond the reach of its remaining
rival, fellow Italian bike constructor, Ducati: The
points roll-call thus read: Aprilia 446 points, Ducati
408, Suzuki 399, Yamaha 332, Honda 309, BMW 201 and
Kawasaki 108. Aprilia's 2010 WSBK season at that point,
even with race two at Magny Cours still left to close
out the championship, boasted incredible spoils: 9 wins,
7 podiums and two world titles.
The success on the
French track was a new and quite extraordinary result
and an exceptional double achievement because this sweep
by Aprilia came in just the second year that its 1000
four cylinder V RSV4 has taken the track, establishing
Aprilia's sporting and technical dominance in WSBK. And
so Aprilia strengthens its enviable trophy collection
which now comprises of 45 world titles (36 in Moto GP, 2
in Superbike, 2 in trial, 5 in Supermotard) and makes
it, with 277 GP titles won, the most victorious Italian
and European name in the history of world motorcycle
racing.
Maurizio Roman, Managing Director of product development
and strategy for the Piaggio Group commented: "This is a
result that bears witness to the our absolute
state-of-the-art technology and products. The fact that
this comes just 48 hours from the grand opening of our
Cologne motorcycle showroom, whose queen will be
precisely the most advanced road technology of our
magnificent RSV4 which has dominated this world
championship, fills me with joy. This is a bike which
combines all of the electronic innovations utilised on
the track to make the greatest technology applied to the
sport bike available to enthusiasts everywhere".
"Aprilia Racing confirms itself today as a point of
excellence with few equals in the world," stated Leo
Francesco Mercanti, Director of product development for
the Piaggio Group and Managing Director of Aprilia
Racing – We are only in our second year of racing with a
completely innovative project like the RSV4, and it is
only thanks to the extraordinary skills at work every
day in Piaggio Group that we were able to achieve high
enough levels of competitiveness and reliability to win
this match against well known brands which have years of
experience in this difficult championship".
Gigi Dall'Igna, technical and sport manager of Aprilia
Racing, has been a key player on the road to this
victory, he added: "Even just one of the championships
already seemed like a mirage two years ago when we began
with the completely new and totally different bike from
anything that we had made before. Celebrating a "world
sweep" like this one today makes me happy and confirms
for me that the Aprilia Alitalia team is made up of
exceptional technicians and personnel. A team to whom I
want to give full credit today for having made possible
in only 27 races what seemed like a silly dream until
just a few months ago."
