It had been two years since Thailand had raced, just the two seasons in which Aprilia has taken a leap in quality that has allowed it to go from being the worst team on the grid to fighting for the drivers’ championship with Aleix Espargaró.
The bike now is so different from the one on the last visit to Buriram that for the brand’s riders it was like going out blind to the first day of the Thai Grand Prix.
“The pace is not bad,” Aleix stressed at the end of the day, in which he finished 12th in the combined times, “but I can’t go fast for one lap,” he lamented.
“The bike skids a lot. I’m not driving badly, but I can’t go faster,” said the Spanish rider.
For Aleix it’s not so much the driving or the style as the lack of references on this track.
“Maverick Viñales has made a podium here (in the past) and has the same problems as me,” he illustrated.
“We started very lost due to lack of data, but I hope to be able to get closer to the fastest”, he tried to look for the positive side.
Despite the fact that he wasn’t fast on one lap, Aleix seems to have a good pace and, in fact, he only sees the Ducati ahead in that aspect, in addition to Marc Márquez.
“Of those who don’t ride Ducati, only Marc is ahead of me,” he said.
After the technical error that prevented him from scoring in Japan, another bad result this weekend would leave him with very little options, something that Aleix can only fight against and work hard. “Whatever has to come, will come,” the boy from Granollers resigned himself.
