Austin.- After going down in history by achieving his first victory in the World Championship and the first for Aprilia in the premier class, Aleix Espargaró arrived at an Austin circuit that “was marked with a ten-meter red X”, he said exaggerating for the difficulties he suffered last year on this track with the RS-GP.
“After winning in Argentina I would never have said that I would be satisfied with eleventh position here. But I am happy, I look fast and the Aprilia works much better than last year”, he admitted at the end of the first day of free practice for the Grand Prix. of the Americas.
Although the sensations are good, Aleix is not provisionally classified to dispute Q2, at the moment.
“Tomorrow morning I have to push a little more to try to get into Q2. I have a lot of catering,” explained the Spanish rider.
“This bike is much better than last year everywhere. I am faster, the bike is different and there is new asphalt. Last year I fell many times,” he recalled.
Aleix stressed that “no matter how fast I am, I can’t win all the remaining races”, but he sees himself strong enough to continue scoring good points with a view to the championship.
“I think I’m sure I can fight to finish in the top six, and to do that at one of the worst circuits of the year for us, it’s very good.”
“It’s not a good circuit, neither for the bike nor for me; I don’t ride well. We are also analyzing the data from Maverick Viñales, who is very fast here. He is not trying to take the Aprilia to his terrain, but rather to understand it, and that is Very good on your part,” he argued.
“And I want to learn from him, how he manages the gas and how he lifts the bike, because he does it better than me. The truth is that I expected to be further away from Maverick”, from whom he was only separated by three tenths.
“If I finish in the top six at all the remaining circuits, it will be a good year,” he assumed.
“The circuit is better than last year, but to have been resurfaced, it is a disaster. When you repave a circuit it has to be absolutely smooth, and this one is not,” he settled at Granollers.
