Aspar pair close the gap to factory MotoGP rivals

De Puniet was the fastest of the two this morning only to be usurped by Espargaró in the afternoon, the Frenchman looking for solutions to improve his rear traction whilst the Spaniard reported positive feedback from the chassis of his ART machine. Both riders are within two seconds of Spies' best effort.

Aleix Espargaró

"We have improved at every race this season and the bike is getting easier and easier to ride. I really like this track and we've hardly touched the set-up from Silverstone, I feel at one with the bike and we were able to push hard today and close the gap to the factory bikes. This is a bold statement but I think we're getting close to finding the limit of this bike and it is going to be difficult to get more out of it. I spent three laps behind Bradl and Valentino and was barely conceding three-tenths a lap to them. The chassis on the ART is magnificent, we're just struggling for power."

Randy de Puniet

"We have tried some different chassis settings today working from the base set-up and it seems like the results were positive this morning. We tried some more things this afternoon to improve the rear traction especially when the tyre begins to wear. We improved both the rear and the front but lost a little bit in turning so I need to adjust to that, but in general I am happy because we're working in the right way. My fastest lap was on the hard tyre so we're happy with that, but as always we need to keep working."

Press release courtesy of Power Electronics Aspar Team.