Aleix Espargaró had a race to forget at the MotoGP Australian GP. He finished eighth, more than nine seconds behind the winner, to his great disappointment. However, he doesn’t place blame on the changed schedule.

Due to forecasts of bad weather on Sunday, the main race was rescheduled for Saturday, which meant that the riders didn’t have as many opportunities to prepare for it. There was no sprint race or warm-up before as usual.

Despite the difficulties on the Aprilia, Espargaró emphasized that there was plenty of preparation time, when asked if the schedule had an impact: ‘No, no, no excuses. We had plenty of time on Friday with very nice conditions, also the FP2. Nothing would change if we raced on Sunday’.

O conteúdo Aleix Espargaró rejects blaming the schedule change for the lack of competitiveness aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Before the sprint race was canceled, the warm-up for the MotoGP Australian GP took place in the rain, and Maverick Viñales was the fastest. The Aprilia rider had good sensations with his bike – so much so that he had something to figure out.

The Spanish rider explained that he had a level of traction in the rain that he didn’t have when it was dry at Phillip Island – something that didn’t happen for the first time in 2023:

– I was looking good, the other Aprilias not that much. But honestly I was with a really good feeling. It’s something we must understand, because on wet I found the traction I don’t have on dry. So we need to understand and we need to study because it’s important. In Japan, eventhough I crashed and I changed the bike, I was one the fastests on track without having the motivation to push. We need to understand, honestly I’m curiously to really go deep in the wet data because we have something we are missing on the dry. Honestly in the warm-up I felt really good.

O conteúdo ‘On wet I found the traction I don’t have on dry’ – Maverick Viñales aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The strong wind that led to the cancellation of the Australian MotoGP Grand Prix sprint race is a constant risk at this time of year at Phillip Island, which suggests the idea of rescheduling it for the local summer season.

Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) was asked about this solution, and the Spanish rider from Aprilia believes it could be beneficial but doesn’t see it as a viable option:

– Maybe, I don’t know. But there are always tricky conditions in this part of the year, but I think logistically it’s impossible for them to move to the initial part of the year.

O conteúdo ‘It’s impossible for the Australian GP to move for the initial part of the year’ – Maverick Viñales aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The race direction of the MotoGP Australian GP received praise from most of the paddock for canceling the sprint race due to strong wind gusts. Maverick Viñales, Aprilia’s rider, took a more cautious approach in his analysis, emphasizing that safety is a priority. However, he did suggest at least having a sighting lap.

The Spaniard considers that it is difficult to judged if the decision was right: ‘It’s very difficult to say if it was correct or not. From my point of view, at least to do the sighting lap to see how the track was and then cancel the race if it was necessary. We had some information from Moto2 riders, they also said it was impossible, so I don’t know. It’s not in our hands’.

Asked whether the cancellation was a disappointment, Viñales replied: ‘I don’t know if it is disappointing or not, because at the end I think the safety has to be the main concern. But it’s always a difficult situation for race direction. I imagine after putting a red flag in Moto2 there was no meaning to let us go with the same conditions, I think’.

O conteúdo ‘At least we could do the sighting lap…’ – Maverick Viñales aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Rain arrived at Phillip Island on Sunday, along with strong winds, and it was in these conditions that Maverick Viñales led the warm-up session of the MotoGP Australian GP.

With the prospect of the sprint race taking place in similar conditions, the riders took advantage of the ten minutes available, completing five or six laps each. However, only Viñales (Aprilia) topped the timesheets, consistently improving his times over a sequence of five flying laps.

Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) recorded the second-fastest time, 1.204s behind Viñales, while Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) was fourth, and Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) finished fifth. The winner of the main race, Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac/Ducati), set the 13th fastest time, 2.680s off the top.

Timesheet:

O conteúdo Maverick Viñales dominated the rainy warm-up session at the Australian MotoGP aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Maverick Vinales showed good pace during Friday and day one of the Australian Grand Prix, but was unable to reflect this on the Q2 timesheet, qualifying only 9th for the long race, and eventual sprint.

In a debrief after the long race, the Aprilia rider revealed that his pace was the same as yesterday, but his rivals managed to raise the bar, something that the #12 could not keep up with. Still, Vinales stated that he knew the difficulties he would go through, since yesterday:

– I was the same yesterday, honestly I rode the same lap times, I didn’t slow down, just the opponents were faster. Honestly I knew from Friday, as soon as I lost 0.3s in sector 4, it means you don’t have traction, so it was tough, a tough race. I tried to control the slippage of the tyre, but anyway the tyre fell off very early on. It was hard, but in these tough times is where you need to become stronger and think ahead. Tomorrow we have a new race and it’s an opportunity to see things for next year. So if we can win something tomorrow in the warm-up and in the race, we will have positive things for next year. Honestly I’m not disappointed, because since Friday I knew it was going to be a very difficult track for us, but of course I always want more, I always want to win that of course. The lads gave everything, I gave everything, and today this was our level.

“Top Gun Maverick” also spoke about the choice of tyres for tomorrow, stating that he hopes to be more competitive, on a circuit that many say is the Aprilia rider’s specialty:

– With the soft tyre I’ll be more competitive because you have more grip, so basically balance things out, we’ll see. It’s a short race, but we can get a good result. Let’s see if we run, first of all. (…) I know, and where the bike is working well, I can make a difference for others. In sector 3 I was fast, which means I have something special about this track, I just can’t do it with this bike. It is what it is. I don’t like it, I want to be first, but on this track the bike is not at its best and we have to understand and accept it. Of course I want more. I want to be clearer, but I can’t ask for more from the guys who give 100% during the weekend.

O conteúdo ‘Where the bike is working well, I can make a difference for others’ – Maverick Viñales aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Aleix Espargaró crossed the finish line in a modest ninth place in the MotoGP Australian GP, more than nine seconds behind the winner. The sprint race could take place tomorrow if the weather allows, potentially providing another opportunity for the Aprilia rider.

He mentioned that if the track is dry, he will opt for two soft tyres, and with that tyre combination, he could be considerably more competitive:

– The only positive on the sprint is that I will go soft-soft, front and rear. And with soft-soft I can go very fast. I proved yesterday that I did three laps in 1m28s half, this morning I did 1m27s. With the soft I can race a little bit more, I can risk a little bit more. But you never know; it looks like tomorrow anyway apart from the wind will be raining from 07:00.

O conteúdo Aleix Espargaró wants to use two soft tyres for the sprint race: ‘I can race a little bit more’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Aleix Espargaró had a race to forget at the Australian MotoGP. In contrast to his usual performance, the Aprilia was not competitive, and the rider finished in eighth place, more than nine seconds behind the leader.

This unexpected performance by the Spanish rider was attributed to difficulties with tyre spin, and he described the result as… embarrassing:

– It was embarassing today. We were not competitive, we had a lot of spin. I never expected to arrive ten seconds from the victory or de podium – nine seconds. The spin level we had this weekend was insane. I tried to manage the tyre. At the beginning I could go faster, sincerelly, but I knew I couldn’t make it to finish line, so I decided to start tyre saving. But even like this there were two or three laps that were dramatic.

According to Espargaró there were four points of the track where he lost more time, but he admitted that it wasn’t possible to be much faster in the whole race: ‘It was in 11/12 and two and six. These four corners… it’s crazy, I don’t understand why we spin like this. I don’t understand this lack of grip with this tyre all the weekend. With the soft I could go quite fast. But I said many times there are many circuits during the calendar in which the pure speed in one single lap it’s not really important – it’s more about the tyre saving, the managing. And there was nothing I could do really. I think it was impossible to go even half a second faster in the total race time today with an Aprilia’.

O conteúdo ‘It was embarassing; I never expected to arrive 9s from the victory’ – Aleix Espargaró aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

At a time when Aprilia riders are reportedly receiving huge harassment from Repsol Honda to take the place left by Marc Marquez, Maverick Viñales is showing service, also showing that he is satisfied with his RS-GP.

There has been constant happiness on the Spanish driver’s face throughout the season and Friday at Phillip Island brought more smiles, with the ‘Top Gun Maverick’ ending the day in 3rd position. In a debrief, the spanish rider said that little or nothing changed in his Aprilia, revealing only the lack of grip of the rear wheel in the last corner:

– It wasn’t bad, I’m happy. Very happy. The positive thing is that we were able to find good speed again and a good feeling with the bike, on a different track again and that’s great, it’s good news. There’s not much more to say about today honestly. I tried to ride the bike, understand the tyres, understand what’s going to happen in the race, the pace and we didn’t work too much on the bike because we think it’s working quite well. Only at the exit of the last corner; we are with bad traction, but it’s something we have to work on a little bit with the electronics. (…) In sector 3 I’m very fast. For me it’s just a matter of traction, because the bike is working really well, so it’s just a matter of traction. We must understand that and that’s all. It doesn’t mean that the bike is malfunctioning because it has little traction in the last corner. The bike is working well, it’s just missing that, but it’s not just me, it’s all Aprilia. It’s something we have to understand for tomorrow.

Viñales was also in favor of the race direction in changing the schedules, putting the long race on Saturday and the Sprint on Sunday, saying that after so many rounds, all the riders are ready, pointing out Jorge Martin, Brad Binder and Jack Miller as the riders to take into account tomorrow:

– They’re all ready. It was a good decision. They’re all set. After running 5 weeks in a row everyone is ready, it’s not like the second race… Everyone is ready. Today, only three riders could make a difference, but it’s going to be tough. (…) I think Martin is very, very fast and so are the two KTM riders. They’re also very fast. Not just on one lap. I don’t know, I think with the soft I get the best pace, on paper, but we need to improve the last sector and with that I can be at 1.29 low. Let’s see if tomorrow we improve and then nothing else. It was a good day.

O conteúdo ‘After running 5 weeks in a row everyone is ready’ – Maverick Viñales aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Maverick Viñales joined Aprilia in MotoGP just over two years ago. Since then, the progress of both the rider and the Noale-based manufacturer has been evident, but the win has still eluded him.

This weekend, the Australian GP is taking place at the Phillip Island circuit, which could be particularly favorable for the RS-GP. The Spanish rider believes it’s a round where victory might be closer, but he also acknowledges that the competition will be strong: ‘I see that if I work well, it can be a little easier than in another tracks because somehow the bike is fitting well for this kind of corners. But it’s very though, because our competitors have a really good level, they are always strong and they are many. However we are also there and we have the speed, and this makes us really happy and really proud’.

During a press conference, Viñales also emphasized that the pursuit of wins is a process that is not quick: ‘We need to continue with this process. It’s a process and you need races in the front – it’s not like you just go there and magically you have the speed: you are building up. And it’s what we are doing, and for sure I know once I win one, I will win more. But we are now on this wall and we need to break it’.

O conteúdo Maverick Viñales chasing his first win with Aprilia: ‘We are on this wall and we need to break it’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.