Featuring Aleix Espargaró throughout the 2022 season, the Noale-based team saw Maverick Viñales follow in his teammate's footsteps and put together a double-double on Friday (3) in practice in Barcelona
It has become routine in 2022: Aprilia was the highlight of the first day of practice for the MotoGP Catalunya GP. This time, however, Aleix Espargaró did not shine alone on Friday (3) in Barcelona and was joined by Maverick Viñales, who, 0s303 slower, formed a double with the World Championship vice-leader.
Racing in his backyard, the elder of the Granollers brothers set the best time of the day in 1min39s402, once again showing how the 2022 RS-GP is a well-balanced and well-adjusted bike, which has worked well on the most varied tracks. Aprilia's captain, Aleix closed the day like a proud father.
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"Maverick doesn't surprise me, he has an impressive speed," he praised. "It would always be nice to have two Aprilia at the front. I'm proud to be the captain of this team. The atmosphere is fantastic," he commented.
So far, Aleix has only managed to take victory in the Argentine GP, and even though he is satisfied with this start to the Catalunya GP, the #41 still doesn't see himself at the same level as in Termas de Río Hondo.
"In Argentina, everything was easier, but here the grip is very low. Here I am suffering more with the brakes. We are fine, but we are not at the same level as in Argentina," he compared. "I feel good, we did a good job. In the first session, we did half distance of the race with the medium. In the afternoon, we tested and analyzed all three tires. With the soft ones, we were fast, so I'm satisfied," he continued.
Viñales, still a newcomer to the team after a long stay at Yamaha, is still getting along with the Italian prototype, but on the Montmeló track he started on the right foot from minute one: he was second in the first practice, even better than Aleix, the fourth, and he repeated the result in the afternoon, improving 0s591 between one activity and another - by way of comparison, Aleix lowered 1s306 between one practice and another.
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"We did very well today. I'm satisfied with the work and what we did with the tires. Even with the used tire, we went very well," commented Maverick. "In the attack time, we were not very good, but we understood how to use the soft tire as well. We continued the work," he continued.
"Here I can be strong on Sunday. I felt good from the start," he commented. "In terms of speed, I'm already with the best, it remains to understand the bike a little. It's a job that comes weekend after weekend. When we race two weeks in a row, I feel better. Aprilia is a new and interesting project and here there is a great will to win," he announced.
Also confirming the tone of this year's championship, European bikes dominated the Japanese once again on Friday. Best of the rest, Enea Bastianini was 0s488 slower than the biggest of the Espargaró and led the Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín.
"I'm happy with today: we started well already this morning, even if all the Ducati riders had a little more difficulty than expected," said Bastianini. "We did very well in TL2, though. We still have to improve a bit in some areas of the circuit and regarding race pace, but I should be happy with this Friday," he stressed.
"I tested the rear tires medium and hard and I'm not sure yet which one I'll use for the race: I felt good with the medium in TL1, but I was expecting a bit more from the hard," he said. "We will have to make a good evaluation," he added.
Coming from a victory in the Italian GP, Francesco Bagnaia did the best of 24 laps in 1min39s950 and was 0s548 behind the leader. Although the distance is not so great, Pecco sees Aprilia as the favorite, since he understands that the grip conditions are very similar to those of the Argentinean GP.
"In my opinion, it's even worse here, but it's not easy to say. Without a doubt, today was a very good day for them, because the Aprilia is very fast when it has little grip, but Aleix seemed more competitive to me in Termas," Pecco noted. "At the moment, I see Aleix Espargaró two or three tenths stronger than the others, but you also have to say that I did two stints with new tires, using both medium and soft, so you have a group of many other riders, like Fabio Quartararo, Enea Bastianini and Maverick, who have a very similar pace," he commented.
"Here, the tire is very important, so it won't be easy to choose the rear, but we'll see if the work we do tomorrow in TL4 will lead us to be safer," he declared.
Pecco pointed out that the RS-GP's strength is traction, and so he believes Aprilia comes out on top in this Catalunya GP.
"They have very good traction. That's something I've seen all year. But on this track they can make more of a difference, because on the rest, the grip is less. But really, I don't know. I'm sure it's a characteristic of this bike," he stressed. "This asphalt gets worse every year, so it's really hard to be fast in the corners and also in the braking. Right now we are very much on the limit, but if the situation gets worse, it would be a problem. Right now I don't know if we can push at any point. The race won't be easy at all," he guaranteed.
World Championship leader Fabio Quartararo only had the ninth best time. With his contract renewed with Yamaha, the Frenchman set the best lap of the day with 1min40s123 and was 0s721 slower than the leader.
When asked if he expected a more rubbery track on Saturday, Quartararo replied: "We expect it, because we know that we have difficulties without grip. We know that with little grip, the Aprilia is super-fast. But we, for sure, have difficulty."
"Even in terms of race pace, I was six, seven tenths slower than Aleix," he pointed out. "On this track, you can feel if you're slow or not, but I feel like I couldn't be any faster, because in turns 3, 4 and 9, you open the throttle and skid. I felt I was driving really well, but just super slow," he pointed out.
Asked if he was worried about the high tire wear, the Frenchman from Nice declared: "It's not because you skid more that you have higher tire consumption. The problem now is that the tire wears out and we are slow.
"So I'm not worried about tire wear, but I'm more worried that I feel super slow and I think a lot of drivers feel the same way," he pondered. "It's hard to really understand the potential with such bad conditions on the track," he pointed out.
In the championship leader's view, Aleix is the only really strong rider at the moment, and if the race were now, he would have to settle for damage limitation.
"If the race were now, it would be damage limitation, but we know that on this track, the more rubber you lay down, the more grip you have," he indicated. "So hopefully we'll have a lot more drip during the weekend and we know it's not going to rain, so if we rubber the track every day, I hope we'll have a huge improvement on Sunday in terms of pace, because at the moment I think only Aleix can have a really fast pace. He's only five-tenths faster, he's also dropping, but he's still five-tenths faster. For us, it falls faster," he closed.
Qualifying for the Catalunya GP of MotoGP takes place on Saturday at 9:10 AM (Brasilia time).GRANDE PRÊMIO follows all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.