THE SPANISH RIDER IS THIRD AND HAS A GOOD PACE AT THE END OF THE FIRST DAY IN JEREZ

LORENZO SAVADORI IS ALSO LOOKING GOOD AS HE IMPROVES IN THE SADDLE OF HIS RS-GP


The good trend for Aleix Espargaró and his Aprilia RS-GP, already among the protagonists in the early races of the season, found confirmation on the first day of practice in Jerez.

Aleix finished the first two sessions comforted by his time, finishing third (1’37.646) and staying consistently in the top positions.

But he especially demonstrated an extremely consistent pace: Aleix was the only rider on the track to lap below 1’38 five times. His second run was spectacular with 1’37.9, 1’37.8 and 1’37.9, all in a row. He then finished his third run with a 1’37.6 and a 1’37.7.

In short, it was a good start that places him among the candidates to go straight through to the Q2 session tomorrow, decisive in defining the grid for the Spanish GP on Sunday.

Lorenzo Savadori closed out his Friday with the 19th best time (1,38.594), seven tenths of a second from the top ten. With such close standings, a sign of the great balance in the MotoGP championship, any progress at all is important and Lorenzo continues improving.

ALEIX ESPARGARO'
"It’s only Friday, but being fast right from the first lap is important. Especially looking at the pace in race configuration, I think I was one of the more competitive riders. Tomorrow I expect the track conditions to change and that could shake things up for everyone. In any case, there is no doubt as to our speed, even if I was unable to improve a lot in the time attack on the soft tyre. On a track like this one, overtaking is no simple thing, so our goal for tomorrow will have to be the first three rows at the very least."

LORENZO SAVADORI
"Today was a good day, despite the fact that I wasn’t able to make a difference on the soft tyre. These are things that are part of my growing process in this category. The positive thing is that we figured out where we need to make changes to improve more, so we’ll try already tomorrow."