The Grand Prix of the Americas will be one Aprilia will keen to quickly forget, after both Sam Lowes and Aleix Espargaro failed to score points for the second race running.
The Italian marque had expected its weekend to be a tough one, the RS-GP struggling to absorb the Circuit of the Americas bumps and on the track’s numerous changes of direction.
Saturday proved woeful, both Lowes and Espargaro crashing during FP3, the latter of the two doing so twice. Qualifying failed to improve, Espargaro falling off again in QP1, leaving him last on the grid with Lowes only two places up the road.
The RS-GP is good at looking after its rubber, and it was this trait Espargaro hoped would propel him up the order on Sunday. However, from the off, the Spaniard hit more troubles and was forced to pit after his front tyre chewed itself to pieces.
“From the first laps I had a bad feeling with the front tyre,” Espargaro said.
“I kept losing it. I thought maybe it was because of the full tank, but things got worse lap after lap, so much that at a certain point I was no longer riding but just trying not to crash.
“Making a pit stop is always the last though for me. It seems like a lack of respect for the work my team has done, but today I had no choice. When I rejoined with a new tyre, I lapped at my own pace without pushing, with the time we had expected.”
Crashes for several riders ahead saw Lowes battling for the points for the first time in his rookie season, and the Briton had the pace to run with those ahead.
But he too was suffering with his front tyre, the right shoulder of his hard Michelin causing him grief. Whilst running in 15th at half distance, Lowes fell off at Turn 13 and was unable to rejoin. Despite this, the British rider feels there are positives to take from this weekend.
“I think that today was the slowest crash of my career,” said Lowes.
“To be honest, it was a strange weekend for us. Even in the race, the harder front tyre was perfect on the left side in terms of feeling, whereas on the right I wasn’t able to ride.
“The pace was what I had expected. I was able to stay in the group that was battling for points and despite a mistake in the early stages, I had managed to close the gap.
“Even on a weekend like this one, we were still able to take a few steps forward. My goal is to stay focused and to continue working with my team so that I can get to the point of exploiting the full potential of my RS-GP.”
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