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ALEIX ESPARGARÓ TWELFTH AND MAVERICK VIÑALES EIGHTEENTH AFTER THE FIRST TWO SESSIONS

The final round of the 2021 Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing Championship season, which is being held on the Valencia circuit, kicked off in the rain that characterised the first day of practice. For all the riders, it was an entirely interim session, postponing the hunt for the best times to the second session.

It did not rain for FP2 in the afternoon but temperatures were cool and the asphalt, still damp here and there, never got any warmer than 13°C. These are historically hostile conditions for the RS-GP which kept the riders from expressing their full potential. Both Aleix (twelfth but just 89 one hundredths behind the leader) and Maverick (eighteenth with a time of 1’32.214) finished the day outside the top ten.

This means that weather conditions will play a key role tomorrow and the predictions say that they’ll be better.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“Unfortunately, we’re struggling at the beginning of this weekend too. The conditions definitely didn’t help us because we struggle to get the tyres up to temp and that prevents us from having grip. We’re working on it. Tomorrow we plan to make a substantial change to the bike’s geometry, precisely to try to find more grip, which is what has been limiting us in the last few races.”
MAVERICK VIÑALES
“The weather conditioned our day today. This morning was not a simple one in the wet and even in the afternoon, the grip wasn’t the best. Valencia is a track where you can learn a lot and we need that as we continue to grow with this new bike. Hopefully the conditions will be a bit more stable tomorrow so we’ll be able to keep working and trying to take a step forward.”

ALEIX ESPARGARÓ TWELFTH AND MAVERICK VIÑALES EIGHTEENTH AFTER THE FIRST TWO SESSIONS - Gresini Racing