Aleix Espargaro had a more challenging start to the second Qatar test, as technical problems left him a disappointed sixth in the times.
Encountering a number of issues across the day prevented the Aprilia rider from fully assessing his testing schedule while a crash on fresh rubber put paid to his advancement in the times. The Spaniard, however, concluded the day with 31 laps under his belt, inside the 1’53’s and just seven-tenths from Miller’s record-breaking fastest, with a 1’53.971.
“Overall, I’m satisfied but it has not been an easy day for me,” Espargaro explained. “We had a couple of technical problems today, and due to these problems we couldn’t achieve our goal, so we couldn’t follow the programme at all.
“At the end I had a small crash when I put the new tyre, so not super happy about my lap time and not super happy about the job we did today, I think we didn’t work very good but anyway, the level is very high, and to be in top six is always good. To be able to lock in 53’s is always good, so overall satisfied, apart from the problems, and looking forward to tomorrow.”
Picking up the pieces as Thursday’s fourth official day of testing continued, Espargaro was sitting pretty in second, having improved his fastest time to 1’53.640, with two hours remaining on track.
