Qualifying
The sunny skies of Friday remained for Saturday at the Aragón Grand Prix. After working with his crew to improve his feeling in the 5.08km track’s numerous heavy braking zones, Bastianini placed P6 in Q1 and 16th overall.

Espargaró continued to build his confidence on KTM’s 1000cc RC16 and Michelin tyres on Saturday morning. Finishing 20th in FP2, the 35-year-old was tenth in Q1, putting him 20th on the grid.

Sprint
As temperatures soared to 29 degrees when the eleven-lap Sprint kicked off, rear tyre choice was open for the 22-rider field. Thinking of the later laps, Bastianini went for Michelin’s medium option, while Espargaró felt more comfortable on the soft.

Bastianini had an all-action opening to the race. Contact with another rider affected his first lap, and he just avoided a crash when Luca Marini fell behind him, but ‘La Bestia’ managed to gain three places on lap two to sit twelfth. A pair of personal best times on laps four and five brought him onto the back of Pecco Bagnaia’s Ducati in eleventh.

While his mid-race pace is reason for optimism, unfortunately the Italian started to suffer from front tyre wear in the closing laps. He lost two places on the penultimate lap as a result, leaving him 14th.

Espargaró also endured a tough opening. The Spaniard struggled at the start before he had to avoid Marini’s crash and Fabio Quartararo’s bike when it suffered a mechanical failure on the back straight on lap five. This lost him ground to the group ahead, but the former Moto2 World Champion gained valuable experience in the remaining laps to finish 17th.

The Tech3 team-mates are now preparing for race day in Aragón, which sees Warm Up start the day off at 9:40 (UTC+2) before Sunday’s 23-lap race, which kicks off at 14:00 (UTC+2).

Enea Bastianini: “The start was not so bad, but when I tried to overtake Franco (Morbidelli), he came toward me and we had some contact. The guys told me Luca (Marini) crashed just behind me, so the first lap was quite strange. When you start further back, the chances of being in a bit of a mess are higher. In the middle of the race, I was quite fast, but then my front tyre dropped and I lost some positions to the others. The medium front tyre is probably a bit too soft for us at this track and we saw that in today’s race. Tomorrow’s a longer race, and I’m sure with a good start like today we can get back toward the top ten.”

Pol Espargaró: “A lot of things happened today! It was a typical Sprint race. I had a super bad start and then (Luca) Marini crashed in front of me. I lost a couple of positions and then lost the tow to the group ahead. Fabio (Quartararo) blew his engine just in front of me on the back straight and everything disappeared! I didn’t know if I was in a corner or on the straight. I had to shut the throttle completely so that was quite scary. In three laps I lost three seconds and was completely alone. Without the problems I’d have maybe finished around four seconds back of my team-mates, which is not bad, but I’m not pleased with this. I’d like to follow them all the race and I hope to be closer tomorrow.”

Nicolas Goyon, Team Manager: “We managed to improve the bike from yesterday, but we still ran into the same problem - it seems both riders struggled to turn. Enea was fighting with Pecco Bagnaia for eleventh position, which would’ve been a decent result, but he overheated his tyre in the fight and had to drop back at the end of the Sprint. This gives us some hope for tomorrow and we hope we can be close to the top ten. On the other side of the garage Pol made a clear step from Silverstone and he’s now a lot closer to the other KTM riders. We know it’s not easy to jump on the bike after some time off it but he did a good job. I’m sure with the medium rear tyre, he’ll be fighting for some points in the race tomorrow. Let’s keep our heads down and I’m sure some more results will come.”