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ALEI WILL START FROM THE FOURTH ROW AT VALENCIA

13 November 2021

For the umpteenth time this season, Aleix Espargaró went straight through to Q2 with an extremely authoritative time, finishing the morning practice session at the top of the list in 1’30.529. The work done in the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini garage significantly improved Aleix’s confidence astride his RS-GP compared to yesterday and the result was clear.

However, in the decisive qualifying session, Aleix was unable to find a good flying lap due to a series of yellow flags that voided every time attack he attempted.

Each session adds a bit more to Viñales’ familiarity with the RS-GP and the step made between Friday and qualifying gave him another bike, decidedly more to his liking on the twisty Valencia track. Maverick didn’t the chance to push harder on his time attack and he just barely missed going through to Q2, lacking only 203 thousandths of a second. However, he has an outstanding race pace which, as could clearly be seen in FP4, makes him confident for the race tomorrow, where he’ll be starting from the centre spot on the fifth row.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“We took a step forward and I’m pleased. The bike worked well today. Despite the crash in FP4, I went back out with the second RS-GP on extremely used tyres and still managed to lap with good times. It’s a pity that we got unlucky in qualifying, with yellow flags that cancelled out all my fast laps. It’s frustrating, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. Let’s just say that starting from the fourth row isn’t idea, especially here in Valencia, but we have the pace to make up for it.”

MAVERICK VIÑALES
“I’m truly satisfied with what we accomplished today, although I would have expected to be faster in qualifying, to be honest. If we look at my pace in race simulation during FP4, we did a good job and I’m able to be fast even after a lot of laps. I lose a lot in the third sector, which is where I lose the most ground. Now that we have a good base for the race, we’ll try some specific changes in the warm-up session to try and improve in that situation.”