Once again, POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Aleix Espargaró was close to the best practice times. Today in Jerez he was just 1.1 seconds off the fastest time of the day, ahead of four riders on ‘official’ bikes. In a rarity, Espargaró was not the fastest CRT rider, missing out by just two thousandths of a second. However, his overall pace was the best of the CRT competitors. He expects further improvement tomorrow, in order to go straight through to Q2.
Teammate Randy De Puniet was only three tenths slower, but concluded the day in fifteenth position. The Frenchman was pleased with his work on a day in which he put in some 40 laps. Hoping to improve rear grip tomorrow morning, his aim is to catch up with Espargaró and kickstart his fight to be the best CRT rider of the weekend.
10th Aleix Espargaró 1.40.738 (28 laps): "This first day has been very positive, I found a great feeling and confidence. Today I was not the fastest CRT rider and I always like to be ahead, but I am calm because we could see that we had a better pace than the rest. Although we were pipped to the best time by two thousandths of a second over one lap, our pace is better overall. The important thing is that we have a great pace and that the bike works perfectly. We lacked a bit of grip on the rear, the bike was sliding out a little, but I guess it's normal on the first day with the track not yet in perfect condition. We finished 1.1 seconds off the fastest time and I'm happy with this. Tomorrow we will have to keep working hard in the morning session and it would be great to go directly into Q2. This afternoon we made a change to the swingarm but it was not as productive as we expected, so tomorrow will take a step back."
15th Randy De Puniet 1.41.078 (40 laps): "We did a great job and I am satisfied with that side of things, but seeing my name in fifteenth position is something I do not like so much. I think we could be higher up the order. In the end I finished three tenths off the best CRT time, so as far as times are concerned we are going well, but here everything is very tight. Today we found a good chassis setting, the feeling was really good with both the front and the rear. Yet at some points of the track the bike was still sliding a lot. I think we lost time due to this, so we will work to eliminate the excess sliding. Tomorrow we will try to improve rear grip. We also tested various tyres; with this heat I guess that we will use the soft in the race, but we will have to see how it performs towards the end of the race. The hard rubber is more reliable here, but it slows us down too much."
Power Electronics Aspar Press
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