At Aprilia, we could draw a positive conclusion from this first day of the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin by noting the presence of its two official RS-GPs in the top 10. And therefore officially in Q2. Maverick Viñales thus closed Texas Friday with the sixth best time. A Good Friday for Aprilia as his teammate Aleix Espargaró finished ninth, an unexpected position considering he was 18th at the end of P1. Precisely, the dynamics between the two pilots are different…
« A positive day, especially because there was a clear improvement compared to last year " welcomes Maverick Vinales. " We were immediately faster both on a lap and on pace, and I feel good on the bike. The bike moves a lot because of the bumps, but that's how it is for everyone and our RS-GP does not behave badly in these conditions ».
Maverick Vinales: “ the objective is to qualify the Aprilia on the front line »
« This Friday, it was important to get direct passage into Q2 and we succeeded, with a view to qualifying. It will be essential to be precise in driving because it is easy to make mistakes on this track. The objective is to qualify at the front of the line: it will take a perfect turn, but it is within our reach » ends Top Gun.
Aleix Espargaró had a less martial speech: “ I am satisfied with my performance on Friday. I don't think I've ever been so tired after a Friday of testing. COTA is a circuit where you have to work your body a lot to try to adapt to the layout and the bumps ».
He finishes : " it will be a difficult weekend from this point of view, while on a technical level, we are always looking for the compromise between agility and stability. In the morning, I struggled a little more because I couldn't use the hard front tire, the one I'm comfortable with, but I'm happy with the step forward I made in P2 ».
Results from P2 of the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
