“It is very curious what I am going to say, but I don’t know if I like this circuit or not and I don’t know how the Aprilia will fare. I have few memories of when we’ve been here, because we haven’t ridden a lot, so I don’t know. It is the only track that casts doubts on me about the ones that remain and even more so seeing the weather that is going to take place. We are going to see training to training ”, he began by saying Aleix Espargaro, after the official press conference, to the Spanish media displaced to the Buriram circuit.
More about what is expected in this Thai GP: “Look, I am positive, but I already know that the bike is not going to work well in the first practice, so we will have to be patient, but in Japan I was surprised, because in the dry I had never been competitive there with the Aprilia, it was one of the most difficult circuits for us and I finished fourth on the first day in the dry. Here I am positive but I know that in the first training session things are not going to work very well”.
On the reunion in the box with the people of the team after the blunder on the Motegi grid, the ECO Lap and the subsequent debacle, it is already past water: “Very well with the team. On Monday I took them all to dinner at a very cool place in Tokyo and tried to normalize everything. They felt a lot of shame, they were very sad and that’s what I didn’t want. Ok, it was a mistake and we have to continue”.
Thailand looks like it will be wet, which generates a contradiction for the Aprilia rider: “On the one hand, I don’t want it to rain at all, I don’t like rain. But on the other hand I think it will be good for the championship. I have little to lose and I think I’m faster than Pecco and Fabio in the water. A rainy race would be good for the championship. What rain is forecast? Well, we’ll take out the umbrella and the transparent visor… I think that in the situation I’m in now in the championship, the more hassle, the better”.
And when asked if Bastianini and the non-orders of the Ducati team seen so far are also part of that mess, he says: “I don’t know how to assess it. I understand that Ducati’s situation is not easy because in the end it can be world champion and stopping a rider who can be champion has to be very difficult to manage”.
