Espargaro “wants to forget everything” about Aprilia’s COTA MotoGP bike

The Argentina race winner went from qualifying on pole and scoring victory at Termas de Rio Hondo to qualifying 11th and finishing there in the Circuit of the Americas race the week after.  

Espargaro owned up to his crash in Q1 which hindered his weekend as he allowed traffic frustrations to boil over, but was expected to have a good race as his pace in the FP4 session was strong.  

However, Espargaro scrabbled for grip throughout the 20-lap COTA race and ended up down in 11th behind Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales.  

When asked if he was still able to learn anything about the RS-GP at COTA, Espargaro says he believes the bike is capable of fighting for the top five in the championship – but nothing done to the bike in America will be relevant going to the European phase of the season. 

“I know it will not sound like a very intelligent comment, but from the first lap of FP1 to the last lap [of the race] I want to forget everything,” he said.  “I want to remove the changes we applied to the bike and go to a normal track.  

“This track is not normal, the ups and downs, the bumps, it doesn’t suit our bike, it doesn’t suit ourselves and we are lucky it’s the only circuit in the calendar like this.  

“So, I think if I managed to finish 10 seconds [from the win] in 11th place at a very difficult place, it means that we have chances to fight for the top five of the championship and I can’t wait to go to Portimao and Jerez.” 

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: MotoGP

Espargaro says his grip woes in the COTA race were a result of him asking for his race tyre option to be put into its tyre warmer ahead of qualifying, as he was certain he’d progress from Q1 to Q2 and thus be given the extra soft rear from Michelin for