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MOTOGP – GP 12, 11, 10

AT SILVERSTONE, ALEIX ESPARGARÓ FORCED TO RETIRE WHILE BATTLING FOR A TOP-10 SPOT

CRASH FOR SAM LOWES ON THE FIFTH LAP. NEXT RACE: ON 10 SEPTEMBER 2017, IN ITALY, GRAND PRIX TRIBUL MASTERCARD OF SAN MARINO AND RIMINI RIVIERA, ON THE MARCO SIMONCELLI MISANO WORLD CIRCUIT.

Silverstone, 27 August 2017 – The entire Silverstone weekend was conditioned by physical problems for Aleix Espargaró, suffering from an injury that in any case did not keep the Spanish rider and his Aprilia RS-GP from proving once again to be competitive. Despite the few laps turned during practice, the number 41 Aprilia rider's performance was excellent, as is confirmed by the spot on the third row earned in qualifying. Unfortunately, the Spaniard had to deal with the pain during the race and that penalized him particularly in the early phase. With a full fuel tank, Aleix had difficulty in the quick direction changes that are so typical of the English track. Lap by lap the situation improved, so much that the Spanish rider was riding his RS-GP into an unhoped-for top-10 spot. The technical problem that stopped him just a few turns from the end does not overshadow the good performance demonstrated at Silverstone, both in terms of the rider's immense efforts and the speed of the Italian bike.

Sam Lowes' race ended early after a crash which was harmless, but enough to force him to abandon his home GP.

ALEIX ESPARGARO' (bike no. 41):It was a difficult weekend. Yesterday, even turning just a few laps, we showed that we can be fast. Today, especially early on in the race with a heavy fuel tank, I really struggled. Despite this, we were about to get into the top-10, which would have been a good result considering my physical conditions. I still don't know what happened. I saw an alarm on the dashboard and the engine switched off. It's a pity because these problems have cost us some good chances. Now I want to rest and be at 100% fitness for Misano.”

SAM LOWES(bike no. 22): “Obviously this was not the home GP that I had expected. The team did a brilliant job and the fans were fantastic. Unfortunately, in the race I made a mistake on turn 5. It was a low speed crash. I checked the telemetry data and the differences compared to the previous lap were really minimal. It's frustrating, but I am looking toward the coming races. We still have 6 more chances to improve. It's a pity for Aleix too because he definitely deserved a good result today.”

ROMANO ALBESIANO, APRILIA RACING MANAGER: “First of all I would like to compliment Aleix. Today he was nothing less than heroic and he would have deserved a top-10 finish. Unfortunately there was a problem with the bike's electronics that switched off the engine and we are still investigating the cause. This weekend was definitely peculiar due to Aleix's critical physical conditions, but in terms of performance, we saw excellent signs of competitiveness.”

FAUSTO GRESINI, TEAM MANAGER: “Today Aleix rode a great race. Given the problems, he really hung in there and he would have deserved the result. We need to improve, that much is certain, but it is also true that we are not particularly lucky. Unfortunately, when you are in a development phase where you also find yourself testing things in the race, problems can be encountered. I am comforted by the fact that, despite the physical and technical problems, we once again demonstrated good performance.”

GP 11, RED BULL RING, AUSTRIA. Spielberg, 13 August 2017 – ALEIX ESPARGARÓ COMES BACK FROM THE TWENTIETH SPOT ON THE GRID FOR A POINTS FINISH IN AUSTRIA. A POSITIVE RESULT ON A WEEKEND TURNED DIFFICULT FOR THE APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI.

The expected comeback ride arrived and took Aleix Espargaró into the points zone for the Austrian GP, recovering from the twentieth spot on the starting grid and finishing in thirteenth place, which was certainly a positive result on a weekend turned difficult for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini after the qualifiers on Saturday.
In any case, the potential of the RS-GP and the Spanish rider were not affected by the race today. Even in difficult conditions, Aleix was able to demonstrate an absolutely competitive pace after the initial laps, whereas the team skillfully took advantage of the morning warm up to reacquire feeling (something for which the ninth place in that session is a testament).

This was a technical response that lets the team leave Austria with a finish in the points, fourth place in the manufacturer standings and motivation to return, as early as at Silverstone, to the levels that have been demonstrated up to now. Sam Lowes, after a good start, suffered particularly from rear tyre wear which forced him to slow his pace considerably, settling for finishing the race in twentieth place.

GP 10, AUTOMOTODROM BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC. Brno, 6 August 2017 ESPARGARÓ PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN THE RACE, TAKING A GOOD EIGHTH PLACE FINISH IN BRNO DESPITE A PENALTY. ROMANO ALBESIANO: “ALEIX PENALISED BUT NOT AT FAULT”.

At the end of a largely positive weekend, partially because of performance in the practice sessions, Aprilia takes a nice eighth place finish with Aleix Espargaró. But the final result on the Brno track could have been better if Aleix had not received a penalty that forced him to give up three positions in the race. The measure was taken because, in the hectic moment when the riders were changing their bikes in the flag-to-flag race, Espargaró had left pit lane just as Andrea Iannone arrived behind him, also coming in due to the changed track conditions (from wet to dry). Close to their respective garages, the two touched and Iannone lost control of his bike. But Aleix could not see who was coming in behind him, so he suffered a penalty by no fault of his own which also led to him losing the good pace which had, until that moment, permitted him to stay among the protagonists of the race, even occupying second place at one point and battling for the spots near the podium. Sam Lowes finished his first flag-to-flag race 18th.

INFO:

www.aprilia.com/en_EN/racing/moto-gp

www.gresiniracing.com/en/aprilia-racing-team-gresini-motogp