Aleix Espargaro ready to fight for good race result from 12th on grid

Following the four MotoGP free practice sessions it was difficult to predict who would be on pole given that Lorenzo, Rossi, Márquez and Pedrosa had each topped an FP timesheet at Catalunya. Qualifying had been an unremarkable session until Pedrosa set the best ever lap of the Catalunya track three minutes from the end. The 1’40.893 lap time beat the pole and fastest race lap times from 2008. The Catalan rider has a slight gap at the front of the grid and is perhaps the favourite for victory, alongside Lorenzo and Crutchlow on row one.

POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró had a mixed day but ended up in his usual position as the top CRT rider. He made some setting changes from the morning with immediate pay off as he made it straight through to Q2, having had a light crash in FP4. He eventually qualified 12th after his team repaired his bike, meaning he is just in front of Randy de Puniet on the grid. Randy just missed out on a Q2 position, taking advantage of his new forks, but he is still looking to improve his engine performance with some set up changes in Sunday’s Warm Up.

12th Aleix Espargaró 1’42.878:
“It was a tricky day but in the end we’ve got a decent result. I didn’t feel comfortable in the morning practice and I asked the mechanics to make some engine settings adjustments, which they did for me and they didn’t even have time to eat lunch! Then I crashed in FP4 which meant they hade ven more work to do. Luckily they got the bike working well at the last minute and I was able to get three fast laps in during Q2. I still got the best CRT time of the day and that’s due to the hard work of the team. Despite the problems our pace is good so we can fight for another good race result”.

Source: Aspar Media