Haga gets to grips with Pata Aprilia

Tuesday, 08 March 2011 18:53

Noriyuki Haga, who celebrated his 36th birthday a few days ago on March 2nd, confirmed that he wants to be one of the protagonists of the season, following two gutsy top 10 performances at Phillip Island. Making his debut on the Aprilia RSV4 of the revamped Pata Racing Team, which has come about following a merger of Borciani and DFX, "Nitronori" was able to put together a couple of convincing races after a disappointing Superpole performance.

Back on a four-cylinder machine after a couple of years on the big Ducati L-twin, the three-times WSBK runner-up finished the two races in Australia in ninth and seventh, laying the basis for a positive 2011 season. Currently lying seventh in the standings with 16 points, Haga is looking to the future with confidence.

"I'm happy with the result of these two races," he said. "We constantly improved and we can keep on doing so, thanks to an excellent technical package. Unfortunately we were damaged during the second part of both the races by some tyre problems that didn't allow us to get a better result. After some adjustments that the team did on the bike between race 1 and 2, the tyre duration got better and I could fight for the leading places almost until the chequered flag. I'm sure that the experience gained will turn out to be useful and we will be even stronger at the second round of the season."