A POSITIVE DAY OF TESTS FOR APRILIA AT JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA
ALEIX ESPARGARÓ: “A STEP FORWARD AND A LOT OF DATA TO WORK ON”
The MotoGP riders and teams remained in Jerez de la Frontera per a day of official tests characterized by weather conditions extremely similar to those found yesterday during the fourth race of the 2017 season. The things that needed to be verified included bike and tyre performance with high temperatures, as well as solutions aimed at preparing for the upcoming European rounds.
It was a productive and positive day for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, busy with their continued development of the RS-GP. Aleix Espargaró, fresh from his solid top-10 finish yesterday, worked on the settings and on the new Michelin tyre options, in addition to testing the performance of a new swingarm and the front downforce fairing. Some very good times came out of the tests and the overall information collected was positive. The Spanish rider did a total of 69 laps and he did his best one in 1’38.999 (fourth best of the day). Aleix’s pace was also good in some rather demanding conditions for bike and tyres.
Sam Lowes is also satisfied, able to find the pace he had demonstrated during practice at Jerez. He and his team had some important confirmation today, with his best lap in 1’40.572 out of a total of 64 laps done.
ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“I am satisfied with this test. We tried a lot of things and I was able to be more competitive than I was in the race yesterday. We are working to better understand how the bike behaves in load transfers. In fact, the RS-GP is extremely stable in braking, but it suffers when I release the brake. The front tyre with the more rigid carcass provides benefits in this sector. I think it may be interesting to try it again. Overall, we took a step forward in terms of getting to know the bike and we have a lot of data to work on from now until the next race.”
SAM LOWES
“Today we worked mainly on understanding what happened yesterday. In fact, I started with the bike in identical conditions to the race, immediately improving my times. It is strange. It could be due both to the track conditions and to my lack of experience. The important thing was getting back to lapping at the times I was doing during practice. I also tested a new swingarm that should increase stability, but I think it may work better on tracks with more grip. Both the new front tyre that Michelin brought and the downforce fairing gave positive signals. They are not massive differences, but in any case it is a tangible contribution to my feeling with the RS-GP. Honestly I think this has been the best test for me so far”.
