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PRUDENT RACE AND A POINT FOR LORENZO SAVADORI

After a weekend of ups and downs with a few difficulties but also the signs of growth that we have by now come to expect, Aleix Espargarò’s race had started with high hopes. Battling in the podium zone from the start, skilfully fending of the attacks of his adversaries, and maintaining his composure just in case, the hometown rider was taking full advantage of the rear tyre choice and a change made to the settings after warmup.

However, his extremely aggressive braking caused some problems for the front until the decisive crash on turn 10 that brought his race to an early end. The glass is half full, though, allowing for optimism on tracks that are more favourable to him and his Aprilia.

Lorenzo Savadori, on the other hand, struggled more with a less-than-perfect setup on this track characterised by grip that is precarious, to say the least. His lack of experience in the category certainly had an impact, keeping him and his team from being fully ready for race day on Sunday. Skilfully maintaining his focus, Lorenzo is still leaving Montmelò with a championship point.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“I think the soft rear tyre was the right choice for today, partly because, with the medium in warmup, I didn’t feel at all good. In the race I was able to be competitive. I lost a bit of time with Marc and when Maverick overtook me, but other than that things were going as expected. Unfortunately, on this track, with poor grip, it is hard to exploit the Aprilia’s speed on the turns, whereas the bikes that accelerate well on the straights have it easier. Pushing hard on the braking sections to make up lost ground, the front tyre temperature rose a bit and when I stressed it on turn 10 I crashed. I’m disappointed with the end result and I apologise to my crew for that, but I’m not disappointed with the overall performance. On this track where we struggle, it was still an encouraging weekend.”
LORENZO SAVADORI
“Unfortunately, we were unable to figure out the tyre and setup situation this weekend, so we were a bit unprepared for the race. At the beginning I managed to stay with the group, but from the seventeenth lap on, the drop in performance was clear and I was just trying not to make any mistakes in the finale. It’s all part of the experience. We’ll just have to do better in the upcoming races.”

PRUDENT RACE AND A POINT FOR LORENZO SAVADORI - Gresini Racing