Is the Aprilia RS-GP the treasure that Bautista and Bradl would have reluctantly hidden from us? We would be led to believe it by reading the rave comments about him distilled by his new servant Aleix Espargaro. The latter comes out ecstatic from his two days of testing at Valencia which were its first contact with Noale's missile.
A discovery that went very well. In the end, a time of 1'30.885 which placed the brother of a Pol, who was discovering a KTM, in ninth place. Nine tenths behind the leader Casa Particular in Viñales on the 2016 Yamaha. All with an RS-GP of the same vintage. Not so bad indeed!
« I am satisfied with my feeling on the bike and with the team » says Aleix. “ It's great to immediately feel comfortable with the team and I felt very good for these two days. Their goals are the same as mine and they are very motivated for this new project. The RS-GP is a bit more competitive than I expected, the front end is really, really good and I'm looking forward to continuing to progress developing this bike. ».
And this development scares him less than the same phase requested by Márquez to Honda or Rossi to Yamaha : " we lack acceleration but we are good in the corners. On this point, playing with geometry will be sufficient. In high revs the bike is fast, but we need more acceleration. The electronics also need a little improvement. But I love this bike and I'm very happy! »
A ray of sunshine that warmed the heart of Aprilia who saw her second pilot Sam Lowes skip the second day following a fall on the first. As for Eugene Laverty, his new recruit for Superbike and mobilized for these tests, he confirmed the good feelings. But he only ranked twenty-first with a time of 1'32.568.
