Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro says his season-best sixth-place finish in the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix was the result of a “different way” of working during free practice.
Espargaro has endured a tough second campaign with the Noale factory in 2018, with the Spaniard registering just one top 10 finish prior to last Sunday's Aragon race.
Such have been Espargaro's troubles, he asked to race the 2017 RS-GP at Aragon after feeling more competitive on it during a test at Misano, and was furious after Aprilia denied this request.
A change of crew chief at Misano, with KTM-bound Marucs Echenbacher switched out for Pietro Caprara, led to Espargaro “working in a different way” by focusing fully on race preparation from FP1.
Opting for the softer rear tyre, Espargaro was able to get into the top six at the start and remained there to secure his best MotoGP result since last year's Aragon Grand Prix.
“On the last race we changed the crew chief and we started working in a different way, we changed the balance of the bike,” said Espargaro.
“We worked in a different way from FP1, thinking more for the race.
“We suffered a lot in qualifying because I started in 15th place which wasn’t really my position because we were stronger but all weekend we worked with a full tank and race tyres.
“Finally, it paid off in the race, we did the right choice with the tyres and we were strong from the beginning to the end, so I’m super happy.”
Espargaro admits the woes of this season have made it “difficult to maintain motivation”, claiming “nothing was improving” despite constant testing, but is hopeful his Aragon result will "help" himself and the team.
“This year has been a super difficult year for us, we are working very hard, everybody in Aprilia, myself, we are trying everything, every single week and we are testing and testing new items and trying new items but nothing is working for the moment.
“You can’t imagine how difficult it is to maintain the motivation with these [poor] results.
“I’m trying everything, I’m working more than ever in my life, with the team and the bike here, we made a lot of meetings.
“In the last two months I’ve been in my home for 20 nights, every GP we do a test and nothing was improving.
“So it was very difficult, I was very upset and difficult to find the motivation so I hope that this result will help myself and also the people around me.”
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