Aleix Espargaro says he ‘can’t wait’ for Saturday’s sessions after surprising himself by setting his top ten-achieving best Friday time in FP2 at Misano on a rear tyre tha🅰t had already completed 16 laps.

The Spaniard has tipped Aprilia to enjoy its strongest weekend of the season around a home circuit that better suits꧙ the characteristics of the RS-GP and duly demonstrated as much with the third best time in FP1 and tenth quickest - the 🐠second best non-Yamaha/KTM rider - in FP2.

Moreover, his fastest time of the day was set on an ageing rear tyre, giving him imme𒅌nse confidence heading into Saturday when he pushes on☂ the soft rear.

“It has been the best Friday of the seaso🎉n so far,” he mused. “I put my best lap time in lap 16 of the rear tyre. I didn’t really expect because the plan was to put laps on the reaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚr soft. I put in the last part of FP2 the tyre of the morning. Lap by lap I started to be more fast more fast. 

“In the end I did a 32.9s - a  top ten time with 15 or 16 laps on the rear tyre, it was impressive. I feel strong, it’s not my favourite track but it’s important🦩🏅 to shine here in Italy. I’m very focused. I feel like I’m strong. 

“I can’t wait for tomorrow morning to stဣart the fight with new tyres and see if we can go under 32s and top ten. I thi🤡nk we can do a good race here, I feel really good.”

Revealing team-mate Bradley Smith - who was fifth fastest in FP1 - has a different machine to him in order to test new part💫s, Espargaro says he feels the RS-GP is quicker than its disa♋ppointing results so far (a best of tenth from the opening five rounds) and is determined to rectify this at Misano.

“I think ♛Bradley has a different bike than mine, he’s trying new things on the bike. Sincerely I didn’t haꦏve time to ask how he felt but obviously by the lap time and pace he was strong in the morning. It looks positive. 

“I need stability, I need calm. I felt strong. I like this RS-GP 20 but we had some bad luck in the other races. It’s not a good track for us, but we have to be calm [and💙] use the maximum potential of the RS-GP 20. 

“We are𓃲 in GP6 and I think we didn’t use the maximum of the bike in very single race. This is what we have to do before we ask for new stuff.”