After a difficult first Grand Prix in Qatar, Aleix Espargaro hoped to achieve better results with his new teammate Scott Redding at the second Grand Prix of the year in Argentina.
The first day was not dazzling and the two men had to settle for twelfth and thirteenth places on Friday. Saturday morning was not favorable due to the weather and the Spaniard and the Briton had to go through Q1 to have a chance of reaching Q2.
While there were only two qualifying places, the battle was fierce between the three Ducati GP18s driven by Andrea Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo and Danilo Petrucci, but also with Xavier Siméon, Hafizh Syahrin, the two Aprilias, the two KTMs, the three rookies Tom Lüthi, Franco Morbidelli and Takaaki Nakagami in the company of Siméon, without neglecting Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham.
It wasn't raining at the start of the session, but the track was wet. Andrea Dovizioso took the lead in 1'50.500, 0.047 ahead of Jorge Lorenzo. Halfway through the session, the two official Ducatis qualified ahead of Scott Redding's Aprilia. Aleix Espargaro moved into third position ahead of his teammate Redding. Dovizioso moved into first position in 1'49.518, then Aleix Espargaro overtook him in 1'49.128 and both men qualified, ahead of Karel Abraham, Jorge Lorenzo and Scott Redding.
Q2 went rather well for Aleix who took seventh position, ahead of drivers of the caliber of Andrea Dovizioso, Maverick Vinales, Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi.
According to Aleix Espargaro, « I am obviously delighted. After the work we did, with a lot of changes, the bike works much better than yesterday, so in Q1 I felt good even in these track conditions.
“And I am convinced that if I could have used a new tire for Q2, I could have easily fought for pole or for the front row. But as I did Q1, I didn't have another tire and these wet tires heat up easily when the track dries out.
“So I was forced to alternate a fast lap with a slow lap to cool them down. But it's good, it's part of the race and the third row is a good starting point for tomorrow's race.
“The Aprilia is a bike that keeps the rear tire well and has a lot of grip even at the end of the race. I like the track and tomorrow we can bring back a good result.”
Qualification results:
1 43 Jack MILLER AUS Alma Pramac Racing DUCATI Q2 1'47.153 8 8 318.5
2 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA Q2 1'47.330 6 7 0.177 0.177 309.9
3 5 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA Q2 1'47.365 6 7 0.212 0.035 314.7
4 53 Tito RABAT SPA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI Q2 1'47.681 6 7 0.528 0.316 312.3
5 42 Alex RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI Q2 1'47.743 6 8 0.590 0.062 309.7
6 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA Q2 1'47.754 7 7 0.601 0.011 314.4
7 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA Q2 1'47.845 7 8 0.692 0.091 316.7
8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI Q2 1'48.247 5 6 1.094 0.402 312.9
9 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA Q2 1'49.044 8 8 1.891 0.797 314.0
10 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda CASTROL HONDA Q2 1'49.304 7 7 2.151 0.260 316.7
11 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA Q2 1'49.326 8 8 2.173 0.022 310.1
12 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI Q2 1'49.975 6 7 2.822 0.649 309.1
13 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Angel Nieto Team DUCATI Q1 1'49.878 8 8 (*) 0.750 311.5
14 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team DUCATI Q1 1'50.063 6 7 (*) 0.935 0.185 318.1
15 45 Scott REDDING GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA Q1 1'50.175 6 7 (*) 1.047 0.112 312.5
16 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM Q1 1'50.324 7 7 (*) 1.196 0.149 308.9
17 10 Xavier SIMEON BEL Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI Q1 1'50.364 7 7 (*) 1.236 0.040 313.4
18 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Alma Pramac Racing DUCATI Q1 1'50.449 6 8 (*) 1.321 0.085 318.5
19 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Angel Nieto Team DUCATI Q1 1'50.606 8 8 (*) 1.478 0.157 313.9
20 12 Thomas LUTHI SWI EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA Q1 1'50.833 7 7 (*) 1.705 0.227 307.7
21 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM Q1 1'51.007 8 8 (*) 1.879 0.174 310.3
22 21 Franco MORBIDELLI ITA EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA Q1 1'51.012 8 8 (*) 1.884 0.005 305.7
23 55 Hafizh SYAHRIN MAL Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA Q1 1'51.142 8 8 (*) 2.014 0.130 307.0
24 30 Takaaki NAKAGAMI JPN LCR Honda IDEMITSU HONDA Q1 1'51.387 8 8 (*) 2.259 0.245 312.4
Reference times:
Test record: 1'37.683 by Marc Marquez (Honda) in 2014
Lap record: 1'39.019 by Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in 2015
Best top speed: 334,4 km/h for Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati) in 2017
Provisional classification of the MotoGP World Championship:
1 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 25 points
2 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 20
3 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 16
4 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 13
5 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 11
6 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 10
7 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 9
8 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 8
9 Andrea IANNONE-Suzuki 7
10 Jack MILLER-Ducati 6
11 Tito RABAT-Ducati 5
12 Franco MORBIDELLI-Honda 4
13 Alvaro BAUTISTA-Ducati 3
14 Hafizh SYAHRIN-Yamaha 2
15 Karel ABRAHAM-Ducati 1
Photos © Aprilia
