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GOOD PACE FOR ALEIX WHO WILL START FROM THE FIFTH ROW

12 September 2020

The qualifiers in Misano played out within the range of thousandths of a second for Aprilia. In fact, only 149 thousandths kept Aleix from pre-qualifying for Q2 in FP3, whereas in Q1, just 83 thousandths denied him the chance to battle for a spot on the first four rows. As the top excluded rider, the Spaniard will start from the fifth row tomorrow astride his RS-GP. That is where his hunt for a top-10 position will begin, supported by the good pace he demonstrated on used tyres.

Bradley Smith’s weekend took a complicated turn, crashing without consequences during the third free practice session and slightly less incisive compared to the good performance he demonstrated yesterday. Bradley will take advantage of the warmup session tomorrow morning to shave off a few precious tenths in preparation for the race.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’

“I am pleased, although the final position leaves somewhat of a bitter taste in my mouth. We improved a lot, but I missed the top 10 in FP3 by a hair and, despite a great time, I didn’t go through in Q1. I’m comforted by the fact that the truly important positions are only a couple of tenths away and that tells me that the RS-GP is a top-level project. Tomorrow will be a strange race. We’ll see all the different tyre options on the track, I think for the first time. I am happy with my pace. It seems like it is good for something more than the top 10, but we also need to consider the difficulty overtaking.”

BRADLEY SMITH
“If we look at yesterday’s performance, the situation is obviously frustrating. As is often the case, the reality is a compromise. We worked well on race pace and I’m rather pleased with that in terms of our expectations. I was lacking a few tenths on the flying lap to do better in qualifying. Thanks in part to the data we’ve collected, we have reached a good base, but then sorting the final details gets more complicated. We’ll try a couple of ideas tomorrow in warmup.”