But the factory Aprilia rider, on the front row and Sprint podium in Qatar opener, was still only 0.755s from the top and confident in how the 2024 RS-GP is performing around the roller-coaster challenge of a dusty Portimao.
“We're missing a little bit of rear grip, especially with the medium tyre. But there’s still time to improve the bike and also the track tomorrow will improve a lot. is always difficult, because it's at least 14-15 very fast riders. So Q1’s it's gonna be fun to watch. I feel like we can go through but it's not going to be easy.”Espargaro’s drama meant team-mate Maverick Vinales was the top Aprilia rider, in seventh .
Espargaro, 34 and the oldest rider on the grid, admits he has an ‘old school’ body-on-the-bike riding style, rather than leaning far from the bike with his elbow down.often enjoys better acceleration than his RS-GP colleagues“In the last two years with Romano , with the engineers, we tried to analyse the benefits and the negatives of riding like this. And it affects quite a lot the tyres. In some places it’s good. In others not that much,” Espargaro said.
“Nowadays you don't need to push that much the bike with your head on the floor because you have a lot of downforce, so the bikes are a lot easier to ride,” Espargaro explained.