Aprilia goes (RED), RS-GP struggling in cool temperatures

Aprilia will roll out a special (RED) livery for this weekend's Valencia MotoGP season finale, as the Piaggio Group again shows its support for the fight against global health emergencies, including AIDS and Covid.

On a technical level, riders Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales will be hoping the bright livery can be matched by the Spanish weather, after the RS-GP struggled in the cooler temperatures at recent events.

After taking the RS-GP's best ever results of third and fourth places at Silverstone and Aragon, Espargaro has been no better than eighth since, including two DNFs.

"First of all, I'm happy to be back in (RED) colours. It is important for our wonderful sport to also demonstrate its support to those who battle in the world to improve this difficult situation," Espargaro said.

"On the more technical side, I must say that the low temperatures in this period are not helping us, but if we really want to aim for important results, we need to work on this limitation as well.

"Our season has undoubtedly been positive, with encouraging signs and especially with consistent competitiveness throughout the entire championship season. We’ll finish as best we can in Valencia and then focus on 2022!"

The previous best championship position for an RS-GP rider is twelfth place, by Alvaro Bautista, in 2016.

Espargaro starts the season finale unable to advance higher than his present eighth in the world championship. However, team-mate Vinales (who scored most of his points with Yamaha), younger brother Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda), Enea Bastianini (Avintia Ducati), Miguel Oliveira (KTM) and Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) are all in with a mathematical chance of snatching the position from him.

"This will be my first time with the (RED) colours and I must say that I’ll be proud to make my contribution to the efforts of so many people who have been fighting the pandemic over the past months," said Vinales, who will be competing in his fifth race for Aprilia.

"Naturally, it will also be my first time on this circuit with the RS-GP. I don’t know how we’ll be able to perform, but that’s the way it is for us on every track. I hope the weather will be stable to be able to work on the RS-GP.

"The idea this weekend is to focus on riding style, rather than on big setup changes. So, we’ll start from a stable base and try to get the most we can out of it."