Aleix Espargaro has called for his Aprilia squad to find a cure for its RS-GP’s weakness in dirty air, the Spaniard having fallen from pole to fifth at Jerez.
Espargaro showed strong speed across the Spanish Grand Prix weekend in clear air having secured pole position for the sprint and GP races, though sluggish starts in both saw him drift back to fifth in the early stages.
While a crash ended his chances for a result in the sprint, Espargaro found himself unable to move forward in the GP to end up taking the chequered flag in fifth, a finish he accepted he “can’t be happy with” having started from pole.
Espargaro laid the blame for his lack of progress during the encounter squarely at the door of his RS-GP’s inability to follow other bikes without its dynamics being severely affected, the one-time premier class race winner complaining that he “can’t stop” his machine and therefore set up overtakes.
“I can’t be happy with fifth because I finished on the podium last year and started from pole this year so I was aiming for a better result,” explained Espargaro.
“We have to improve on Sunday’s, the bike when I’m riding alone in the practices feels very good and is very fast with good stability, but when I’m riding in a group I don’t understand why but I can’t stop it and have really bad feelings.
“I lose the front every time I try to get close to the other riders to set-up an overtake, I don’t have a solution so we need to understand this as soon as possible.
“When I’m alone I can stop the bike whenever I want and hold my lines, my normal line is not like the KTM’s as I can’t brake really late like them and then re-accelerate, I slow it down more (on corner entry) and carry more corner speed.
“I can go fast, but as soon as I get close to another bike everything gets a lot worse.
“We have to work out if the problem is just because of the temperatures or maybe the aerodynamics, so hopefully we can discover something for the future.”
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