APRILIA RIDERS UNABLE TO FIND CONFIDENCE IN THE SOFT TYRE USED IN QUALIFYING
ESPARGARÓ AND LOWES CALLED ON TO COME FROM BEHIND IN THE RACE
The race on the Red Bull Ring will be an uphill battle, coming back from behind for the Aprilia machines. After the good feedback yesterday, especially in the second session, Aleix Espargaró struggled to improve on his performance with the soft tyre. There was a lack of feeling in braking highlighted by the numerous times the rider ran wide at the most demanding braking sections on the Austrian track. However, the Spanish rider has not lost confidence for the race. His pace is good and, above all, his confidence in the medium rear that he will use tomorrow make him optimistic for a solid placement. It will be a comeback ride from the seventh row that will need to begin as soon as the lights go out.
His teammate, Sam Lowes, is in a similar situation, twenty-third in qualifying, but rather confident in his chances to manage race distance. His goal is to finish in the points and gain confidence in view of his home GP at Silverstone.
ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“It’s hard to remember a qualifying session this difficult for us. Throughout the day I was never able to find the right feeling with the soft rear tyre. It is not a problem with acceleration, but with braking. The tyre pushes a lot and I can’t get the bike stopped. I pushed to the limit, I ran long and I risked but without any result. Fortunately, we will use the medium tyre in the race tomorrow and we have shown that we can maintain a good pace with it. It will not be easy starting from so far back, but I am convinced that a top ten finish is within our potential for this race too.”
SAM LOWES
“These qualifiers were rather hard for us. Even Aleix struggled and we were very close on our fast laps. In terms of pace, on the other hand, we have good potential, to be honest. I worked a lot on braking and the results are tangible. I always compare notes with my teammate who is one of the strongest late brakers on the track and our reference points have gotten quite close. It would seem that we do not have any big problems with fuel consumption, so we’ll be able to use maximum power for race distance and that could give us an extra weapon in the race finale.”
