Aleix Espargaro admitted he was pleasantly surprised by the steps forward made by Suzuki after setting the fourth fastest time on Monday at Sepang. The Spaniard trailed Valentino Rossi by just 0.641s on his updated GSX-RR and was encouraged by its performance both in dry and wet conditions.
“It has been a positive day of testing because we made some improvements. The track was more slippery and dirty today so I had to get back the confidence, but I have very good feelings. We are working on the performance improvement but working little-by-little, so I was a little surprised by the speed and power that the bike had today. I also had the chance to test the bike in wet conditions and I feel very comfortable: it is small and easy to handle so I feel confident. Tomorrow morning we will try some set-up modifications and in the afternoon we will work on the pace; since it is maybe more important than the single lap.”
Teammate Maverick Vinales also shone to finish ninth fastest, less than a second off the pace, and the Moto2 graduate continues to grow in confidence with every lap completed.
“I continue having good feelings about the bike and my objective is to ride as much as possible as I have to learn how it behaves and also the lines to be kept on track”, he explained. “I’m in the middle of my learning process so we haven’t been making major modifications on the machine; it’s more a matter to adapt my riding style. I also had the chance to try how it behaves in wet conditions and I had good feelings.”
