MOTOGP TESTS AT SEPANG

ESPARGARÓ COMPLETES – AND IS SATISFIED WITH – A RACE SIMULATION

IANNONE IMPROVES WITH CONFIDENCE IN HIS APRILIA GROWING

The second day of pre-season tests on the Malaysian circuit of Sepang gave Espargaró and Iannone the chance to do a lot of positive work.

The two teams stayed busy in different ways. In fact, Aleix focused on a race simulation for the day which provided comforting results. His pace over about twenty laps was consistently fast with a time in the end that was significantly better than what he had done here in the October race. His best time was 2'00.101.

Andrea and his team, after their very first contact yesterday when the Italian rider threw a leg over the 2019 RS-GP for the first time, began to make some changes to the bike and, although a time attack is certainly not one of the goals in Malaysia, the improvement on the time sheets compared to yesterday was clear, thanks to a time of 2’00.510.

ALEIX ESPARGARO'

"Today I did a 20-lap race simulation and I am very satisfied, both with how I held up physically and with the performance of the RS-GP. I managed to lap in the first half of the long run at 2'00 and in the low 2'01s for the second half - a good pace that confirms our competitiveness with used tyres. I must be realistic and also consider that the track is in better conditions than those of the race, but I am still pleased with the performance. We are still lacking incisiveness when we have more grip on new tyres. It seems like the others are able to exploit it better on the flying lap."


ANDREA IANNONE

"Today we began to get to know the bike better, which is part of our growth path. There are some positive changes and some not so positive, so we’ll keep going without revolutionising the bike, but with the clear goal of constantly improving, lap by lap. We managed to find some advantages in performance with used tyres. I did my best lap precisely in these conditions and using the medium. I am pleased about that and I can confirm our potential, considering the fact that this is our first real test."