Aleix Espargaro battles and confirms good race pace, Bradley Smith crashes out of San Marino GP

 In MotoGP, News

As has happened often in this first part of the season, the end result does not do justice to the hard work done by Aleix and Aprilia. In a race that was more than 20 seconds faster than last year’s, the Spanish rider finished just 15 seconds behind the winner. In 2019, that gap was 34 seconds.

This is undeniable progress and Aleix confirms it in no uncertain terms, but the thirteenth-place finish is no reward for this satisfaction.

Bradley Smith’s Sunday took an unpleasant turn straight away with a crash in the early stages of the race. The British rider was able to re-join but, with a damaged RS-GP, he had to settle for crossing the line when the chequered flag came out.

Both riders will have a day of testing on Tuesday on this same track, which will host the MotoGP round a second time next weekend.

ALEIX ESPARGARO

“The final position does not reflect reality. We are doing very well and my feeling is still very good with the new RS-GP. Today I had fun and the numbers confirm our improvements. The only difficulty is in overtaking. We are lacking the acceleration to get past our rivals and that forces us to hang back even when our pace could be better. Our growth is undeniable. We’ll get there, we just need to be patient and keep working.”

 

BRADLEY SMITH

“Unfortunately, the crash in FP3 compromised our weekend. The sensations were good on Friday, but when I had to switch to the second bike, it wasn’t the same feeling in qualifying or in the race. Today I crashed on a bump and then, despite the bike being damaged, I was able to re-join and finish the race. We’ll use the tests on Tuesday to take a closer look at what is causing our difficulties so we can be better prepared for the next race.”

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