Gresini Racing » News MotoGP » ALEIX ESPARGARÓ DEMONSTRATES HIS POTENTIAL BUT A CRASH RELEGATES HIM, FOR THE MOMENT, JUST OUTSIDE THE TOP TEN

ALEIX ESPARGARÓ DEMONSTRATES HIS POTENTIAL BUT A CRASH RELEGATES HIM, FOR THE MOMENT, JUST OUTSIDE THE TOP TEN

16 April 2021

The first day of practice on the spectacular Portimão circuit was conditioned during FP1 by a track which, partially damp, kept all the riders from expressing their best. Times were far from the expected standards and everything was postponed until the second session.

In FP2, Aleix did well, consistently staying in the top part of the standings and being one of the first three to attempt a time attack, with a good 1’40.907 which placed him provisionally in the lead. However, in the decisive run, after the tyre change and when all the riders pushed hard to lower their times, a crash (inconsequential for the rider) kept him from defending the position. He finished just outside of the top ten, in spite of the crash, missing a provisional Q2 spot by just over a tenth of a second. He’ll have the third and decisive session tomorrow before qualifying to remedy the situation.

Lorenzo, very much at ease on the Portuguese track, demonstrated outstanding improvement compared with the first races in Qatar. He finished sixteenth, just over two tenths from the top ten.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“I am happy with the day. The session this morning, considering the track conditions, was substantially pointless. In the afternoon, I felt good, although I had a few difficulties with the front end. At the beginning, I thought this might have been due to the tyre carcass being too stressed and, precisely to solve this problem, I chose the hard tyre on my second outing to try for a good time. This proved to be a mistake. The lack of feeling was due to poor grip and that led to my crash. I am not worried, because I’m confident that direct access to Q2 will be decided tomorrow morning, when everyone will be lowering their times.”

LORENZO SAVADORI
“The track grip conditions are anything but ideal and if last year, having done the tests, I was starting from a slightly better situation than the others, now we are all at the same level. In any case, the new bike performs better overall compared with 2020, although we still need to improve, because I am not entirely convinced about the settings. I’d like to focus primarily on the second part of the braking, when you release the brake to go into the corner, a situation where I am also less incisive than Aleix.”