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YET ANOTHER SOLID FRIDAY FOR ALEIX ESPARGARO

18 June 2021

LORENZO DISCOVERING THE SECRETS OF THE SACHSENRING

The 52 degrees Celsius on the asphalt (31°C air temps) did not keep the MotoGP riders from doing some interesting times already on the first day of practice at the Sachsenring. The hilly German track was the setting for yet another solid Friday for Aleix Espargaró, who has by now become a fixture in the top part of the rankings with his Aprilia RS-GP.

With an eye to race preparation, the Spanish rider still managed to take seventh in the combined standings. He also demonstrated an outstanding pace, fundamental in view of the 30 laps scheduled for Sunday.

For Lorenzo Savadori, the Sachsenring is basically a brand new track since his references during his 125 and MotoE career don’t count for much. It is certainly not an easy layout, but Lorenzo tackled it gradually, improving more than 7 tenths between the two sessions and limiting the gap behind the lead to just over one second.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“I know it may seem strange, given the final position, but I think this was the best Friday of the season so far. I felt good straight away. I’m able to be fast without taking excessive risks and the grip helps us, significantly higher than it was in Barcelona. I didn’t put together a perfect performance on my flying lap, but I’m competitive in terms of pace. This will be a track where the tyres will be highly stressed, also because of the weather conditions, so working well on that aspect is important.”

LORENZO SAVADORI
“I liked coming back to this track. The last time I raced here was in 2019 with the MotoE bike. Clearly, everything changes with a MotoGP bike. The track gets a lot smaller, but I must say that I had fun. We worked a lot with used tyres. We need to improve the second stage of the race because in Barcelona that was a limiting factor for us again. When I put on the new tyre, I did two decent laps, but I think that our potential is higher. We are still lacking a bit, especially on T2, but I continue to improve and, for now, that is still the main objective.”