MotoGP | Gp Jerez Race: A.Espargarò, “The contact with Miller deprived me of the top ten”

MotoGP GP Spain Aprilia Gresini – Twelfth position for Aleix Espargarò in the Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth round of this 2019 MotoGP world championship.

Despite the great work carried out during this morning's warm-up, in fact, the Spaniard was unable to make the most of the potential of the 2019 RS-GP, closing the GP with a placing below initial expectations.

It should be noted that the standard bearer of the Aprilia team was the author of a nice duel with Jack Miller, with the latter having a fall while trying to snatch twelfth place from the Spanish rider.

“In the very first part of the race I struggled to find traction, but after just five or six laps I started to feel more comfortable and running at a good pace,” added Aleix Espargarò. “The situation improved further in the last ten laps, in which I was decidedly consistent: I started to make up ground on the group of riders in front of me and I knew I could fight with Nakagami and Crutchlow, who we were getting closer to”.

“Unfortunately it wasn't possible because Miller hit me when I overtook him; I was already completely inside the curve and it was quite a violent impact, fortunately I managed to avoid falling", he added. “However, this made us lose a position towards Bradl. The race was our best track session of the weekend and this makes me happy: at this moment it is important to always get the most out of it and not make mistakes, and today we succeeded."

“Tomorrow will be a very important test day. I will be the first on the track, we continue to work hard to improve." he concluded.

Here are Bradley Smith's assessments: “At the start of the race I was a bit rusty, then things improved. Unfortunately, the choice of the medium front tire didn't help me to be effective in braking, but I wasn't able to test the hard compound much with the RS-GP and I intend to take advantage of tomorrow's tests for this too."

“This morning I had an excellent feeling, but the high temperatures in the afternoon changed things,” he added. “Towards the end I was able to ride better and be more decisive in the fight with the other riders. Overall a positive weekend for the type of work we are carrying out."