Difficult Weekend for Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team on the Nurburgring.

Max Biaggi was unable to take part in both races due to after-effects of the injury he sustained on Friday, while Leon Camier, after taking eight in race 1, had a sliding crash in the heavy downpour during the second race.

Nurburgring, September 4th, 2011 - The weekend which comes to a close in Nurburgring is one where hard luck and weather got the best of the Aprilia Alitalia team's efforts. World champion Max Biaggi was forced to sit out both races due to physical conditions: the fracture to the metatarsus in his left foot kept the Corsair from riding onto the track, in spite of both Max's and the Mobile Clinic doctors' best efforts.

Max cannot help but be disappointed: "I think it must be a Guinness world record to break a foot so badly without crashing! I tried everything I could to get onto the track today, but it was impossible to race under these conditions. The pain was just too severe. I am very disappointed. This is the first race that I've missed in 19 years of my career. Unfortunately we don't have any control over hard luck, which I hope has been satisfied with this weekend because I would really like to finish out the season well".

It was not a particularly happy weekend for Leon Camier either. In the first race the English rider came back from the thirteenth spot on the starting grid to seventh place, crossing the finish line in eighth after a slight error in the very last turn. Race 2, held in torrential rains, kept the riders busy just trying to stay in the saddle, let alone expressing their full potential. Leon, with a fourth place finish in his grasp, could do nothing when his Aprilia RSV4 lost grip in a puddle in a turn on the 12th lap. The red flag came out one lap later to suspend the race.

"It was truly dangerous to run Race 2 - confirmed **Leon **- There were puddles everywhere, visibility was terribly reduced and the situation got worse lap after lap. Other riders also had trouble in the turn where I slid. There was a virtual river running across the asphalt. It's a shame, I think they could have stopped the race earlier given the track conditions, but there's no use complaining about it now".