MotoGP | IRTA Sepang Test Day 1: Espargarò, “The first day of school”

Irta test – Aprilia Gresini Racing: The 2018 MotoGP season kicked off today with the first day of testing in Malaysia. The Sepang circuit will see teams and riders engaged in three fundamental days to lay the foundations on which to build the new championship. In the Aprilia garage, attention was focused on the debut of the RS-GP in the new 2018 version, an evolution of the Italian prototype which aims to continue on the promising path of growth undertaken last season.

Both Espargaro' and Redding had the opportunity to get on the new bike, after having become familiar with the track and the rhythms of the MotoGP using the 2017 version RS-GPs. Aleix's feedback was immediately positive: the Spanish rider highlighted a global improvement and, above all, a strong margin for growth offered by the new configuration. His best lap of the 40 total (2'00.866) was achieved with the 2018 bike without attempting a time-attack but with a gradual approach, focused on the development and analysis of every technical detail.

Redding, among the first to get on the track despite the asphalt compromised by a morning storm, made the most of the day astride the 2017 bike. The last part of the test, with the new bike, did not allow Scott to explore fully exploit the potential of the RS-GP. Operation which will continue tomorrow and the following day.

Here are the words of Aleix Espargarò: “Today was like the first day of school. The first two hours were challenging, after a long time without riding a MotoGP, but step by step I found the feeling again. The first approach with the new bike was certainly positive. Especially from a chassis point of view, the 2018 RS-GP allows us to close corners better and reflects what I requested of the Aprilia engineers. We still have a lot of margin, the bike is at 75% and we will reach 100% for the tests in Qatar. Tomorrow we will continue to work on the 2018 bike while on the third day we will carry out some comparisons to have clear ideas on the development between now and the first race."

Here are Scott Redding's impressions: “This morning in the wet with the 2017 bike I immediately felt pretty good, and we continued to improve with each outing, reaching a good feeling level. The first approach with the 2018 RS-GP was a taste, we simply moved the setting of the old bike to the new one. I felt the potential but it's a very different bike, we need to work on it to adapt it to my needs. We will focus on this in the next two days, both from the point of view of the riding position and the setting."

Romano Albesiano's assessments: “The new bike that debuted today confirmed to Aleix the good things highlighted by test rider Baiocco, as demonstrated by the improvement over the lap. There are positive aspects both when entering and exiting corners, a good starting point in a first day which was rather tentative. We will have the opportunity to analyze the performances in the next few days, where everyone will push harder, but the first approach was certainly promising."