Thursday, Aleix Espargaró appeared confident before the Italian Grand Prix on the Mugello circuit.
It must be said that the Aprilia rider made a great debut there during the last edition in 2019, placing 5th in FP1, and that, this year, he had prepared for it by having surgery for compartment syndrome immediately after Le Mans.
Aleix I will espargaro : “Mugello is a demanding circuit, even from a physical point of view. It is precisely for this reason that I decided to have an operation on my arm after Le Mans, taking advantage of the break to fully recover. The operation was perfect and I will be in good shape during the first Italian race. It's an important race for the team on a circuit that has never been our favorite. But now we can count on an RS-GP 2021 definitely competitive and I can't wait to see how she performs at Mugello. »
Finally happy since his Aprilia is making visible progress, the native of Granollers even shared his pleasure by showing us his new motorhome in the paddock of the Italian circuit.
Alas, for the one who seems to carry a black cat on his back, it was actually not the RS-GP which proved uncompetitive on this first day in Tuscany, but rather his right arm who remembered his good bad memory, swelling, from this morning, in proportion to the minutes spent on the handlebars.
“I was doing very well after the operation, so I was confident. Unfortunately, I already felt a lot of pain this morning after a few laps. I had a lot of fluid in my arm, and after the second session it was even worse. I was very, very sore. So I couldn't do more than three laps in a row. When you have that much fluid in your arm, it puts pressure on the muscles, which is where the pain comes from. So I went to the Mobile Clinic, where they almost brought out a Coca-Cola can full of liquid. It was almost 300ml, which is a lot. As soon as the fluid was gone, the pain went away immediately. Since then, I have not suffered any more, I feel very good. They told me that the fluid could build up again tomorrow because the route is very demanding and the operation was only ten days ago. It is not very easy to remove the fluid every time because it can very easily lead to infection. So Saturday will not be an easy day. I'll try to limit the damage and not do so many laps. But now I'm happy and confident for tomorrow, and I'm praying that the fluid doesn't build up anymore. I knew this circuit would be demanding and having surgery was without a doubt the right decision. We will handle the issue in the coming days, but I don't think this is a limitation. I'm happy with the way the RS-GP performs at Mugello. It is definitely an important test bed for our project, which proves to be constantly competitive. I have never been so fast on this circuit. I am really very happy. »
Despite the pain, Aleix I will espargaro finished 8th in FP2 after finishing FP1 in 13th position.
Hats off to the artist!
FP1/FP2 classification of the Italian MotoGP Grand Prix at Mugello:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
