Aleix Espargaro Interview after Friday Practices at Phillip Island

Aleix Espargaro Interview
Friday – Australian GP

Trev was in the press scrum on completion of proceedings on Friday at Phillip Island and reports in with some quotes.

On pace for the day:

Aleix Espargaro: “I lost a lot of time in the last corner, I’m a lot slower than last year, my best time lap is about half-a-second slower than last year, but I lose almost all the half-second in the last quarter.”

What can be done to help you in the last corner?

Espargaro: “Very good question. If you know tell me. There is a bump and my bike is not turning, so I just went wide. I don’t want to turn with the throttle, because it means by increasing the spin you can turn in the second part, but destroy the tyre. So you want to turn at the beginning without the front, but I cannot at the moment, the bike is going wide. So we have to analyse and work on that place.”

Rest of the track, are you happy?

Espargaro: “It’s not bad, obviously I did not shine a lot in these afternoon sessions, because everyone started with the soft, I was with the medium, Fabio, the rest of the Aprilia. I was P1 of the medium tyres and I’m very happy with my pace. Obviously not as fast as the soft. But if the long race is tomorrow I think we did a good job by insisting with the medium.”

And about the race being tomorrow?

Espargaro: “Its exactly the same, my opinion this is the most far away race in the world, so we came here and if there is any possibility Sunday is bad, maybe to change the race and put a good show, a long race for the people, for the championship point and everything, and if Sunday the conditions are good enough in the wet in the wind, to run the sprint. But I think it’s fair and good enough, to do the long race tomorrow.”

MotoGP Friday Afternoon Practice Results

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Brad BINDER	KTM	1m27.943
2	Jack MILLER	KTM	+0.148
3	Maverick VIÑALES	APRILIA	+0.269
4	Jorge MARTIN	DUCATI	+0.279
5	Pol ESPARGARO	KTM	+0.420
6	Marco BEZZECCHI	DUCATI	+0.425
7	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	DUCATI	+0.509
8	Enea BASTIANINI	DUCATI	+0.510
9	Aleix ESPARGARO	APRILIA	+0.513
10	Johann ZARCO	DUCATI	+0.513
11	Francesco BAGNAIA	DUCATI	+0.699
12	Alex RINS	HONDA	+0.701
13	Augusto FERNANDEZ	KTM	+0.713
14	Raul FERNANDEZ	APRILIA	+0.716
15	Alex MARQUEZ	DUCATI	+0.718
16	Marc MARQUEZ	HONDA	+0.847
17	Fabio QUARTARARO	YAMAHA	+0.994
18	Joan MIR	HONDA	+1.064
19	Luca MARINI	DUCATI	+1.221
20	Miguel OLIVEIRA	APRILIA	+1.768
21	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	HONDA	+1.807
22	Franco MORBIDELLI	YAMAHA	+1.965

MotoGP FP1 Resuts

Pos	Rider	Bike	TIme/Gap
1	Jorge MARTIN	DUCATI	1m29.039
2	Augusto FERNANDEZ	KTM	+0.720
3	Maverick VIÑALES	APRILIA	+0.738
4	Brad BINDER	KTM	+1.246
5	Johann ZARCO	DUCATI	+1.272
6	Marco BEZZECCHI	DUCATI	+1.395
7	Alex MARQUEZ	DUCATI	+1.395
8	Jack MILLER	KTM	+1.414
9	Enea BASTIANINI	DUCATI	+1.425
10	Aleix ESPARGARO	APRILIA	+1.441
11	Francesco BAGNAIA	DUCATI	+1.479
12	Marc MARQUEZ	HONDA	+1.575
13	Pol ESPARGARO	KTM	+1.636
14	Alex RINS	HONDA	+1.639
15	Raul FERNANDEZ	APRILIA	+1.714
16	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	DUCATI	+1.780
17	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	HONDA	+1.795
18	Fabio QUARTARARO	YAMAHA	+1.819
19	Franco MORBIDELLI	YAMAHA	+1.901
20	Joan MIR	HONDA	+1.933
21	Miguel OLIVEIRA	APRILIA	+2.124
22	Luca MARINI	DUCATI	+2.293

MotoGP Championship Points

Pos	Rider	Points
1	BAGNAIA	346
2	MARTIN	328
3	BEZZECCHI	283
4	BINDER	211
5	ESPARGARO	177
6	VIÑALES	165
7	ZARCO	162
8	MARINI	144
9	MILLER	135
10	QUARTARARO	132
11	MARQUEZ	108
12	MORBIDELLI	79
13	OLIVEIRA	73
14	DI GIANNANTONIO	70
15	FERNANDEZ	67
16	MARQUEZ	64
17	RINS	54
18	NAKAGAMI	50
19	FERNANDEZ	39
20	BASTIANINI	36
21	PEDROSA	32
22	MIR	20
23	ESPARGARO	12
24	SAVADORI	9
25	25 FOLGER	9
26	26 BRADL	8
27	27 PIRRO	5
28	28 PETRUCCI	5
29	29 CRUTCHLOW	3
30	30 LECUONA	0