Espargaro: Immediately I felt better

Aleix Espargaro feels the “hybrid” Aprilia which produced a successful outing at the Australian MotoGP has translated a promising pace in Malaysia as he secured a provisional Q2 spot following Friday practice.

The Spanish rider caught the eye with seventh place at the end of FP1, instantly finding pace in the hot conditions at Sepang, using the altered Aprilia which appears to have found key solutions to his lack of rear grip problems which have hampered the team’s progress in 2018.

Espargaro, who held on to a top ten spot on the combined times after FP2, also feels stability has been secured from the front and rear with his Aprilia having verified the progress witnessed at Phillip Island last weekend.

Aprilia’s updates appear to have cured electronics issues while the new chassis and fairing has improved the RS-GP’s weight distribution and feeling for the 28-year-old.

“Immediately I felt better,” Espargaro said following FP2 at Sepang. “In Australia we had some problems, but in the warm-up we improved with that bike. On the first two days I was doing back-to-back and I was a bit confused, but then in the warm-up with the new bike I felt better, and in the race I was able to do a really strong pace in the first part of the race, and finally finish in ninth place.

“Here, from the beginning, I felt better and it's the first time in this season that in the first two sessions, we are straight into Q2. So obviously a little bit better.

“[The bike] has more rear grip and stability. Overall, the feeling of the bike is that this bike is like a lower bike – it's actually not – but my feeling is that this bike is lower, everything is more compact, and when I touch the throttle, the stability is a lot higher, the rear grip is higher, and when you release the front brake, the turning is a lot better.

“So overall, we have to still work on it, because the rear grip is not as good as I expect, but anyway, still it's better than the '18 bike.

Espargaro also accepts the gains found from the hybrid bike means adapting his riding style to extract the maximum performance without having to risk any compromises.

“I have to change a little bit my riding style, because again the approach of the throttle is a little bit different,” he said. “But I'm happy, I really enjoyed the Australia race and I enjoyed this morning. This morning I was fast, so I'm happy.”

The Spanish rider confirmed he’d shaken off the effects of a nasty clash with a piece of debris from the Marc Marquez and Johann Zarco accident at Phillip Island which moved a metal plate from a previous injury inside his hand.

“The hand is good. Two days after the incident, when the inflammation went down, the hand felt perfect, so no problem,” Espargaro confirmed.