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ALEIX ESPARGARÓ GOES STRAIGHT THROUGH TO Q2 FOR THE FOURTH TIME IN A ROW

1 May 2021

The RS-GP improves and Aleix Espargaró confirms, once again in Jerez, that he is at ease in the top spots of the MotoGP standings. For the fourth consecutive time in as many race weekends, he goes straight through to Q2, thanks to the fifth-place time earned in the morning FP3 session with a fantastic time of 1’37.049.

In fact, two crashes in the FP4 session just a few minutes before qualifying forced him to change bikes for the decisive session. Aleix reacted extremely well, lapping only a few thousandths of a second off his time in the practice sessions and, with a time of 1’37.085, he took the centre spot on the third row of a starting grid characterised – as it usually is these days – by extremely narrow gaps between the top riders.

Lorenzo Savadori made clear progress in terms of pace, but had to pay the price of being a rookie in MotoGP during qualifiers. He finished with a time of 1’38.325 (but in FP3 he had lapped at 1’37.814) which places him on the eighth row of the starting grid for tomorrow.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“I don’t think the result in qualifying is entirely indicative. Today we once again demonstrated great competitiveness. In race configuration with used tyres, I think that only a few other riders have a pace better than ours. Unfortunately, we may still be missing a bit of power in qualifying to take full advantage of the soft tyre’s grip, but if we look at the gaps, we’re really only talking about thousandths of a second. For the race, it will be essential to get a good start, which will allow us to gain a few positions in the early stages. After that, everything will play out based on tyre wear in the final laps. I’m not obsessed by the result. The thing that comforts me most is that we have been among the favourites for an important position every race weekend so far. This means that we’ve taken a clear step forward and that we are working in the right direction.”

LORENZO SAVADORI
“Things went rather well overall today. In terms of pace, we were able to improve my feeling. On the other hand, I still need time to work on riding at the limit, for example in qualifying, where things get more complicated for me. It seems repetitive, but these bikes are extremely stiff and, compared to the factory derivative bikes, movements are far less accentuated. This doesn’t help me when I’m trying to find the limit and, given the high competitiveness of the championship, you always have to ride at 100%. The increased wind in the afternoon also didn’t help, as my crash in FP4 demonstrates.”