Aprilia was the nicest surprise on the second day of tests in Qatar, the last ones before the Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing championship opening round, also scheduled to be held in Qatar on 26 March.

Confirming the good sensations he had yesterday when, slowed by a crash, he had shown the potential to move up in the standings, Aleix Espargarò rode his 2017 Aprilia RS-GP to fifth place in the rankings for the day with a time of 1’55.121, just 66 one hundredths behind the leader, Viñales.

This is the best result yet that the 2017 Aprilia RS-GP has achieved in testing, only on its third outing of the season. Beyond the excellent time achieved, the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Spaniard put 34 laps on the sheets, continuing development of the new bike and obtaining positive feedback throughout the long day of tests.

Sam Lowes, who tested the 2017 bike for the first time yesterday, also continued progressing, shaving more than 8 tenths off of his time from Friday and stopping the clock at 1’56.276, a performance that earned him twentieth place at the end of the day.


ALEIX ESPARGARO'

“I had good sensations today, despite the crash on a fast turn that cost us the time. We were unable to test everything that we had planned to, but we definitely took a big step forward in terms of setup. Especially going into turns, which was one of the biggest limitations yesterday. Tomorrow we'll continue working on the geometry in preparation for the race and, above all, we'll be doing a long run.”

SAM LOWES 

“Today was another good day for us. We did not run into any trouble and we were able to further reduce the gap behind the central group of riders, which was our goal for the first race. I feel like I'm beginning to understand the RS-GP better. We did some tests and had some positive responses and others not so positive, but everything helps me to have a clearer idea of which direction to go and to convey my needs to the mechanics. I am particularly pleased with the work we did, especially because I was quite consistent on used tyres and that, more than the flying lap, leads to good results in the race.”