FIFTH AND SIXTH ROW FOR THE APRILIAS IN GERMANY
A GOOD PACE IS NOT ENOUGH TO SEND ALEIX AND ANDREA TO Q2 BUT LEAVES HIGH HOPES FOR A COMEBACK IN TOMORROW’S RACE
Fifth and sixth row for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini riders in the GP of Germany tomorrow. This was the outcome of the day of qualifying on the twisty Sachsenring circuit on a Saturday where Aleix Espargaró, still suffering from injuries to his left leg after his accident in Barcelona, finished with the fifth best time in Q1 (1’21.313) which earn him the fifteenth spot on the fifth row of the grid.
Andrea Iannone continues improving compared to the first part of the season and, by now stably in his teammate’s slipstream, he finished the first qualifiers in sixth place with a time of 1’21.433, therefore in the first spot of the sixth row.
This means that both of them will have to come back from behind to hunt down a spot in the top ten. Playing in their favour is the good pace they both demonstrated in the various sessions, although the German circuit is one of the most complicated of the season in terms of ease of overtaking.
ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“The weekend is going much better than Assen. In terms of my physical fitness, I did not expect a change in such a short amount of time. In the simulations with used tyres, I felt good. In qualifying, I expected to be able to do better, but I ran into traffic and wasn’t able to put together a clean lap. Starting from behind here is not idea, given the scarce opportunities for overtaking, but I can count on a good pace and I am able to be incisive in braking. I will definitely need to stay calm in the first lap. Some of our rivals will manage to create a gap, but over 30 laps, management will be fundamental.”
ANDREA IANNONE
“We are doing better than I expected on this track. Unfortunately, the biggest limitation was qualifying, where we had a significant gap. I can confirm what was already said, in other words, that tyre management will be key in the race tomorrow. It won’t be easy. We still haven’t decided which compound to use because we need to analyse all the data carefully.”
