Valencia MotoGP Test: Keith Huewen: ‘Heaven sent’ debut - has Aprilia found another star?

The Valencia MotoGP title decider and post-race headline this week’s wuqian0821.com MotoGP podcast featuring Keith Huewen.
Miguel
Miguel

The season finale saw 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Francesco Bagnaia hold his nerve to secure Ducati’s first MotoGP title since Casey ꦐStoner in 2007 while Alex Rins took an emotional victory in Suz🌳uki’s farewell appearance.

But there wasn’t long to celebrate before Bagnaia and Rins joined their rivals back on track for a crucial post-raceꦬ test.

As well as trying the latest developments for 2023, which left the likes of Honda’s Marc Marquez and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo somewhat underwhelmed🦹, the test marked thཧe first chance for riders switching teams (such as Rins) to experience their new machinery.

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Of those, one rider stood out head and shoulders above the res⛎t with former factory KTM race winner Miguel Oliveira finishing an impressive fourth fastest on his debut for the new RNF Aprilia team. The next-best rider switching bikes was Alex Marquez, in 15th.

“Bagnaia is going to come out of the box with a bike that works next year but also a new team-mate [Enea Bast𒁃ianini] pushing him really hard and a very different atmosphere with Jack [Miller] leaving, so we’ll see how it all pans out,” said former Grand Prix 𒊎rider and British champion Keith Huewen.

“Then with the limited testing time available this winter, we could end up with Yamaha and Honda still perhaps noꦯt being in the best shape in time for the first race, given what Marquez and Quartararo were saying.

“Meanwhi🥀le you’ve got Aprilia, who had three bikes in the top five. It's been a bit of a shock to the system for some to see Miguel Oliveira right up♍ there in his very first test.

“That for me is also a༒n indicator of just how good the Aprilia is. That it's a motorbike 🐬you can jump on and perform well on straight away. I can’t wait to see what Aprilia does next year.”

wuqian0821.com MotoGP podcast with Keith Huewen
wuqian0821.com MotoGP podcast with Keith Huewen

wuqian0821.com MotoGP editor Pete McLaren added: “It didn’t seem like there were many new parts for Aleix and Maverick to🍬 test, but as Keith ha𝔉s alluded to, the new guy, Oliveira, had a fantastic debut when you consider it was also RNF’s very first day running those bikes.

“I saw team boss Razlan Razali in the airport just before I flew back and the team are unsurprisingly really, really happy with h🐓ow well Miguel did straight away.

“Remember the Yamahas were litꦅerally wheeled out of the RNF pit box on Sunday night. Then the Aprilias came in, the team had to learn how to work on them and set them up, plus there are the new staff to incorporate as well as the two new riders.

“The Aprilia is a comple✃tely different machine to the Yamaha in every way imaginable. Razlan said even little things like the fuel filler and bike stand didn't fit.

“Then, after all that, Migu💦el goes out and finishes 0.3s from the fastest♊ lap.

"They say you shouldn’t judge too much on one test, but we've also seen in the past that when guys are fast from theiꦅr first ride on a new𝓀 bike, it’s usually a very good sign.”

Miguel
Miguel

Huewen added: “As a ri🎶der, when everything is new, in a bit of disarray and nobody quite knows what is going ꩲto happen, but then you kick your leg over the bike with a default set-up and it just works. That is heaven-sent!”

Podcast host Harry Benjamin then quizzed the duo on the other Va꧒lencia testing activities, as well as the Moto2 and Moto3 fina🍸le.

Download Episode 71 at the following links...

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