Aprilia kicks off the second round of the World Championship season, the Argentine weekend, in the best possible way. In the first session of the morning, Maverick Viñales was fastest ahead of Aleix Espargaró and in the second (faster) practice session, it was Aleix who came away with the upper hand over Maverick.
In short, a double one-two which is a first for the Italian team and demonstrates the good progress the RS-GP machines and all of Aprilia Racing are achieving.
Naturally, these are only the results of the first day of practice and the riders and the team are well aware of the improvements that must be made in order to stay at the top end of the standings, but it was unquestionably a good day that boosts confidence in view of the rest of the season.
Aleix
“Even though, before arriving here, everyone said we’d be fast like we were last year, I was still convinced that we’d have to demonstrate that on the track. The risk was that we might have gotten ahead of ourselves and that has happened to me in the past, so I tried to find my pace little by little today. Evidently it worked. I lapped at a good pace and, when it came time to find the speed for a flying lap, I did it.”
Maverick
“A decidedly positive day. We still need to improve our pace a bit, but overall I’m satisfied. I’m confident because our pace already seems to be good and knowing that we still have margin for improvement is a good feeling. Now we need sit down and calmly analyse all the data we gathered today. I can’t wait to get back out on the track to see what we’ll be able to accomplish tomorrow.”
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