Aprilia has made huge steps in terms of performance over the last few years, but Aleix Espargaro still sees two of its main competitors as being particularly far away at tracks like Misano, with Ducati and KTM keeping a close eye on them.
Faced with a track that doesn’t particularly favor the RS-GP, A. Espargaro said he’ll try his best to close the gap to the competition: ‘I don’t think my physical condition will be an excuse, I’m fine, and I’ll try to rest as much as the corners on this italian track for the Aprilia allow me to and tomorrow I’ll try my best. Then I’ll try my best, trying to push the front a little less with the medium tyre, it might be a little better for me. On tracks like this, slower, with more stops and starts, a lot of traction, it’s difficult for the Aprilia, completely the opposite of Barcelona. It’s a track where we have to try to score as much as possible because here fighting with Ducati and KTM is very difficult […]’.
Asked what differentiates the italian bike from its Ducati and KTM counterparts, the spaniard explained how Misano has particularities that don’t allow to exploit the Aprilia’s best features in the same way:
– We have a bit less weight at the rear than they do and that completely changes the balance when there’s a lot of traction and I still believe we don’t have the torque that Ducati and KTM have and when you’re a bit limited by the electronics and the traction control our bike feels a bit better but when you can put all the power on the track it’s difficult. Today it was impossible to follow [Brad] Binder and Dani [Pedrosa]. In acceleration we lost a lot of ground.
And concluded: ‘It might seem looking from the outside that we’re very far after being eighth but… this is MotoGP today and to be at the top every week is very difficult, and on a difficult track for us we’re not that far off’.