Fernandez Thankful Guided by Espargaro at MotoGP Argentina

The Moto2 2021 runner-up seemed to be wasting time in his MotoGP debut because the KTM RC16 didn’t work as expected. Following his arrival at Aprilia’s satellite team RNF, Fernandez had to relearn the new prototype and its approach to the Argentine Grand Prix, where he raced only two races there.

In practice Friday, the racer from Madrid finished last in record time. He even lost to rookie Augusto Fernandez by 0.014 seconds, but is only 1.057 seconds behind Espargaro to top the fastest times in Practice 1 and Practice 2.

Aprilia detected problems with track recognition, grip management and electronic glitches that Raul was still unable to avoid at the 2022 RS-GP. For this reason, factory Noale allowed its new rider to start on the track under Espargaro’s guidance.

“Aleix has helped me a lot, he is a real man and I want to thank him publicly,” said Fernandez.

“In addition, Aprilia has given me the opportunity to follow it and understand how the bike behaves when there is little grip. Aleix and Maverick (Vinales) have a lot of experience in MotoGP. For me, after all, it’s only my second year. With this low level of grip very difficult for me.”

The 22-year-old racer explained the problem that made him fall behind during practice.

“It’s great but there were three points where I had problems, the bike worked very well, I said it, I feel very good. The problem is I had problems at foreign circuits,” he said.

“I’ve only come to Argentina three times and when there are obstacles, it’s difficult for me to cope with, for example, there are holes or a lack of grip. It’s hard for me to keep the electronics off, that’s bullshit but I look at the data and I can’t figure out how to drive the electronics off, when it’s logged in you die.

“Both Maverick and Aleix were able to understand and adapt their style of managing electronics with a little grip. In my case I tried to do the same thing as usual, but found I couldn’t do it with a low grip.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply