Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) left the second Official Test of the year satisfied following three days of hard work Down Under, especially praising the long runs undertaken on his RS-GP. With improvements from Sepang, the Spaniard also finds the Aprilia suited to his riding style – and has clear direction for the next and final pre-season test in Qatar. Espargaro finished the test in the top ten on combined times, with a best of 1:29.361 – only 0.003 off P9 man Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS).
Aleix Espargaro, P10: “We are leaving these tests at a good overall level. We really worked hard. Today we focused on consistent performance. The RS-GP did very well in race simulations but we know that there is still room for improvement on that front. Here at Phillip Island I found a bike that once again suits my riding style in braking, whereas we were able to improve in terms of grip compared with the Sepang tests. After talking with the others, I think that we should be able to gain something in the turns, especially the fast corners, speaking of which, we tried a few changes to the chassis architecture to see if we could find more speed in the centre of the turns. In Qatar we will continue in this direction, trying both the new fairing and the evolved engine again to establish the base for the first race weekend.”