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ALEIX TAKES A TOP-10 SPOT IN THE OPENING PRACTICE SESSIONS AT MISANO

11 September 2020

The road to being in the best possible conditions for the race on Sunday is still long, but Aprilia has certainly started the weekend on the right foot. A prominent protagonist in FP1 with his third-place time, Aleix also confirmed his performance in the afternoon, taking an important top-10 spot even without resorting to a new tyre.

Bradley Smith had an outstanding morning session, where he finished in fifth place with a final time attack. His pace is also good, which is an aspect he worked hard on in the afternoon, without focusing on pure performance for a flying lap.

FP3 tomorrow morning will be fundamental, where Aleix and Bradley will be trying to go straight through to Q2 – the second qualifying session.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’

“This was undoubtedly a positive Friday. I was able to stay in the top 10 without doing a time attack in the afternoon and that means that we’ve done a good job with the tyres. This weekend promises to be interesting. We have seen various riders select different tyre compounds, so it will be important to make the right choices. I’m pleased with our work today. I can’t way to try and improve in FP3 with a new tyre to confirm a spot in Q2.”

BRADLEY SMITH
“We started well this morning with fifth place, whereas our program in the afternoon was different. It’s true that after the tests we had an idea on how the tyres would work in the race, but we still need to test them again and get a better feel for how they’ll perform over the long distance. The bike seems to work well here, partly thanks to the good level of available grip. Tomorrow morning, we’ll obviously use the soft tyre, after testing a couple of changes.”