Jerez.- The Aprilia rider is getting used to achieving very good positions on the starting grid and this Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix he will once again start from the front row, as he did in Argentina, where he took pole and He confirmed his great pace in the race with a victory, and also in Portimao, where he started third and managed to reach the podium in the same position.
In terms of pace, the Aprilia rider had a great weekend that he will now have to endorse in this Sunday’s race.
“Since Friday I felt good with the race tire (medium), but in MotoGP it’s no longer just having the pace, you have to qualify well on the grid. Yesterday afternoon we had a long meeting, normally it’s to prepare for the race, but we also looked for something with the soft tire because it had a lot of rebound and could not be competitive. The team did a huge job, they changed the geometry, they added weights to remove the vibration and the lap was great, not as good as Pecco’s , but enough to be in the front row”.
On paper, it does seem that both Pecco Bagnaia and, above all, Fabio Quartararo have something more than Spanish.
“I think that if we analyze the free practices and FP4 well, I honestly don’t think that Pecco and Fabio have more pace than me. With more than 20 laps I have managed to ride in 1.37, which is Fabio’s pace, while Pecco has not given so many laps. It’s clear that the man to beat is Quartararo, but I think we have a similar pace. Tomorrow everything could change, but right now I think we’re candidates to fight for victory”.
While the pace of the three is very even, what the French and Italian do have better, compared to Aleix, are the first two laps with new tires, which can encourage them to try to escape.
“Correct, this is how it is, also in Portimao I suffered a lot with a full tank. There Fabio strolled, but if you look at the lap times since I managed to overtake Marc Márquez, on lap five or six, until the end, I rode the same than Quartararo. It will be very important to start well and be competitive with a full tank,” he said.
“Let’s not forget, either, that the race will be after Moto2 and the track is going to skid a lot until we remove the rubber from the track, so it’s not going to be the thing for many inventions in the first laps, you have to use your head “added the man from Aprilia.
Finally, Aleix was asked to assess the difficulties that remain on the Maverick Viñales side of the garage on Aprilia.
“It’s hard to say, honestly the speed between Maverick and me is not so different, in some phases of the races we have the same times, but when we mount new rubber he continues to suffer at times. I think it’s not bad, but he has to continue improving confidence on the bike”, settled the boy from Granollers.
