Espargaro struggling in Valencia qualifying but staying confident for good race result

The end of the season is here and there are titles to be won, along with some farewells to be said. On the second day of the Valencia GP the tension increased and a tight qualifying battle was fought. Tight that was from pole position downwards as Marc Marquez ran away with top spot, whilst his competitors fought for scraps. Lorenzo gave it his best shot but his Spanish rival stepped up the pace at the end of Q2, Marquez taking 0.4s off his best lap and setting a new pole record at the death. The two title rivals will start the race together at the front, so it’s time for everyone else to sit back and enjoy the race.

The two POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar riders did their best, but did not get the luck or rewards they wished for, even though they had a special guest in attendance today – Valencia CF footballer Míchel. Trying a new chassis and comparing it with the existing frame, Aleix Espargaro missed out on Q2 by a fine margin and finished 14th, the second best CRT rider, but is confident of a good race. His teammate Randy De Puniet had continual problems with set-up and finished 20th. He will look for improvements in Warm Up in order to be competitive in Sunday’s final race of the year.

14th Aleix Espargaró 1’32.807: “It’s been strange that this has been the only track of the year so far where we have not matched our 2012 pace. It’s been a tough weekend so far, testing the new bike and struggling to get a competitive set-up on our usual machine. I’m not too concerned because the work ethic of the team is superb and tomorrow I know we’ll be ready to fight as top CRT. We don’t know which bike we’ll use in the race yet, but the objective will be just the same, top CRT and highest position overall as possible.”

Source: Aspar Team