Aleix Espargaro took his hybrid Aprilia lab-bike to ninth in Sunday’s Phillip Island MotoGP and now says he can see light at the end of the tunnel.
The Spaniard is riding a bitsa made up of 2018 parts with a new frame and engine, trying to make some headway for 2019 before the testing ban comes into place on December 1.
“I’m happy overall. Maybe the word is not happy. I can see the light. The bike is a lot different and I felt great during the race but this track is quite strange and I don’t want to think what we tried here is good or bad. I want to go to Malaysia and just work with this bike to see what it brings,” said Espargaro, speaking at the track.
“This year I suffered a lot at every track with lack of grip and lack of stopping of the bike. This bike looks like it is lower – even if it isn’t – it feels that way. The stability is a lot higher. This is a strange track but the first feedback is good.
“We could finish the race in the top ten after a difficult weekend. In the warm-up this morning we finally found something for what we thought is a big problem and from the first lap I rode much better.
“I rode quicker in warm-up than the qualifying and in the race the fastest lap was half second slower than pole position but my fastest lap was one second quicker than my time in qualifying.
“So obviously I improved quite a lot and I felt better. Unfortunately in the last three-four laps the rear soft tyre dropped a lot and I couldn’t fight for eighth place. Anyway ninth place and riding a lot quicker made me a little bit happy.”