The Aprilia rider is confident she has the raw pace to match first and second placed Francesco Bagnia and Fabio Quartaro on the grid, but the key will be the one who deals best with the inevitable tire drop over 30 punishing laps.
“The P4 is good enough,” Aspergaro said. “I missed pole position by just two tenths.
“I think the pace is very similar between Fabio, Peco and I. But I don’t think it will be a matter of speed.”
The Spaniard admitted his confidence had waned a bit after an early crash in FP4, but his hard-tire pace looked very competitive again.
“When I crashed in FP4 with the hard tyres, I was already matching the fastest lap of the session and it was just lap two,” he said.
“I already had 10 laps on the front tire, and a new hard rear, so the bike was pushing a bit, plus the full tank. Maybe I had to wait to be a little more careful because that lap I was already close to 1m 20s which would have been good enough for P1.
Defending champion Quartaro, who was fastest in FP4 with a time of 1 m 21.065 s, started the season with seven laps on a hard front, while switching between a new medium and hard rear.
The next best Bagnaia, the fastest for most of the Sachsenring weekend, debuted with new stiffer tires at the front and rear.
“I think I have the same pace as Peco and Fabio. But the key won’t be who is faster, the key will be the last 10 laps. The tire drop for me will be greater than in Barcelona,” said Espargaro, Joe Quartaro Ko for allowing him to run early in his home GP, before later handing in another when he thought the race was over a lap early.
“Tomorrow they say it’s going to be even hotter, so the grip will be very low and here you spend a lot of time at maximum angle to the left.
“a right [of the tyre] I can do the 24 Hours of Le Mans!” he joked, “because there are just two corners and the tire works well. The problem is gone. You’re spending a lot of time spinning, spinning, spinning. So the temperature of the shoulder of the tire becomes very high.
Espargaro, who has taken four podiums after his historic Aprilia win in Argentina, will start the season 22 points behind Quartaro.
Vinales: closer and closer all the time
Teammate Maverick Viales scored his first goal of a direct access to qualifying 2, but could only claim ninth place on the grid, although only half a second from Bagnia’s pole position pace.
“I’m happy because I went straight for qualifying 2, but I think we can be more ambitious because we have the ability to be inside the top 4-5 and go either way, especially on lap one ‘It’s hard for me to keep everything together,'” said Vinless.
“I miss a tenth, a tenth there, so I never close a perfect lap. But it will come and I feel closer and closer all the time. So I’m not happy with P9, but I’m on it. am happy for [way the] Going for the weekend and races.
“It is clear that we want more, but it takes time and we also need to understand very well how to take a step and never back down. To keep moving forward. And once we If you are in the forefront, you always remain in the forward position.
Like the Espargaro, Vinales continued to use the new Aprilia fairing upgrade for the second day in Germany, even though its real advantage would be on tracks with longer straights.
“We kept using it because there’s nothing negative in it and just a little bit more top speed,” said Vinales, who has the best Aprilia result of seventh.
“It’s always nicer and makes your life easier to overtake.
“It’s not easy to overtake here, but I can overtake downhill because the bike is very stable, and even on the main straight.”
A painful last-place finish at Sachsenring a year ago saw Viales look for a fresh start with Aprilia for 2022.
