Aleix Espargaro: Pedro Acosta ‘almost removed all the stickers off my fairing’

Aleix Espargaro was one of the standout riders in the Qatar test as he backed up his potential by finishing just behind last season’s MotoGP runner-up.

Espargaro was outside the top ten for parts of FP1, but when lap times began to heat up so did the Spaniard.

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Espargaro moved just ahead of Pedro Acosta, whom he had a close call with on the run to turn one.

In a repeat of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Francesco Bagnaia’s moment during the grand prix last season, Espargaro got sucked in by the slipstream and nearly ran into Acosta.

Discussing the moment afterwards, Espargaro said: “I was surprised. He almost removed all the stickers off my fairing on the straight.

“Then I didn’t have clean air and I couldn’t stop the bike. We know which area we have to work.”

Regarding his performance, Espargaro was very happy with his dry running effort before rain surprisingly fell in the evening.

“In the first practice it was quite good and the lap times were quite decent and we did a good job,” added Espargaro.

“In the afternoon we were just cleaning the track. The rain and under the lights; there was nothing really important to understand.

“It was very strange. Hopefully it will not rain for the qualifying or the race.”

With dry track time limited, and a very busy schedule to follow on Saturday as the final practice will now count towards Q2 places, Espargaro said having a good feeling was key.

Espargaro said: “[It was] Very important. In the first session in the dry it was very hot and I felt better than in the test during daylight.

“Hopefully tomorrow we can do a good job because practice three will be very important to go through to the Q2.”