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ESPARGARÓ GOES STRAIGHT THROUGH TO Q2 ONCE AGAIN AND WILL START FROM THE FOURTH ROW

23 October 2021

With an exceptional performance in FP3, Aleix Espargaró made the top ten, which sent him straight through to the top-tier qualifying session once again, as has occurred consistently this season, thanks to his eighth place in the wet during the morning session.

In the qualifying session that decides the best spots on the grid, the damp but not wet track conditions forced the riders to use slicks – a situation that is always hard to read – keeping him from making it into the very highest spots. However, a start from the fourth row (eleventh-best time at 1’34.963) means that he won’t be too far from the leaders in a race where, if the forecast of a truly dry track is accurate, all the riders will be reckoning with conditions that have yet to be experienced this weekend.

Maverick was also conditioned by this situation, never before tackled astride the RS-GP, finishing seventh in the Q1 qualifying session, but his best lap was cancelled because he had done it in yellow-flag conditions. Relegated two positions back, he’ll start from the seventh row. Obviously, the same consideration applies for him that tomorrow, on a dry track, anything could still happen with his weekend in Misano.

Lorenzo Savadori, who had begun his wild-card weekend by riding his Aprilia to a seventh-place time on Friday, fell victim to a crash in the early stages of FP3 where he fractured his right collar bone. He’ll undergo surgery this evening (Saturday) in an effort to accelerate recovery times, but he will definitely have to miss his next scheduled race in Portimão. The goal is to be back in the saddle in Jerez for the end-of-season tests.

ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“Today was one of those (fortunately rare) days where we riders weren’t really keen on going out on the track! All joking aside, the conditions really were critical, both because of the low asphalt temperature and because of the half dry/half wet situation. In any case, I’m not disappointed. I did a good lap in FP3 that put me through to Q2 and then in qualifying I simply wasn’t incisive – no point trying to make excuses. Considering the forecast for good weather, I think there will be quite a few surprises tomorrow because we haven’t had the time to work on the setup and even the data from the tests isn’t a given since that can sometimes be approximate.”

MAVERICK VIÑALES
“After two extremely peculiar days, we can’t look at the result but at what we were able to learn. We are working to get to know this new bike and to define a line to follow in the future as well. From this point of view, I’m satisfied that the team and I improved performance in the wet, also figuring out what had slowed us down yesterday. When the track started drying out, on the other hand, we did not make the same step forward, but I’m confident that we’ll be able to improve our pace tomorrow if the conditions are consistently dry.”