SPECIAL WEEKEND FOR THE APRILIA RACING RIDERS, FIRST AND SECOND IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS. HOME RACE FOR SYLVAIN GUINTOLI, EUGENE LAVERTY LOOKING TO CONTINUE THE POSITIVE STREAK. Noale, 22 May 2013 – After the excitement at Monza the time has come for the Aprilia Racing Team to head to the United Kingdom, just a shout from Sherwood Forest, to take on the English Donington Park circuit. This is a special weekend for both riders since it is the closest race to home for Northern Irishman Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli lives just thirty minutes from the track. There is no lack of motivation. The first of which is the presence of the fans, encouraged by a championship situation which has Sylvain in the lead with 137 points, 13 more than his team mate, fresh from a podium and a victory at Monza. The Aprilia Team’s extraordinary labours have allowed Guintoli and Laverty to tackle each race with their sights set on the podium, contributing to manufacturer standings where Aprilia dominates with an 18 point advantage over BMW, 42 ahead of Kawasaki, 94 in front of Honda, 104 above Suzuki and 120 over Ducati. The variable that could reshuffle the deck is the weather, as is always the case when racing on English soil. At the moment the forecast seems to confirm this theory, predicting alternating rain and clear skies without any consistent solution. In any case, even in the wet Guintoli and Laverty have proven their skills astride their RSV4s. The weekend holds some strong personal undertones for Sylvain Guintoli: “Donington has always been a thriller for me! Amongst many eventful races, this is the track where I met my wife, but also the one where I broke my leg very badly in 2009. I live 30min from Doni so it’s like my home race. Many friends and family are coming to support me”. Donington is definitely not Eugene Laverty’s favourite track as his best placing here was a double podium in the British Championship under extreme conditions. 2013 could be the right year to upset predictions: “Donington has never been kind to me in the past so I’ll be hoping that changes this weekend. We’ve had a great run of form lately and I want to continue our podium streak. Donington couldn’t be more different to the previous circuit of Monza and we’ll need to work to control the power of the RSV4. Seven riders on five different makes of machinery could win this weekend so it’s going to be a tough fight”.