Aleix Espargaro dominated Friday practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, topping the combined timesheets by 0.303s from Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales.
Espargaro is on a purple patch in 2022, coming to his home race off the back of four-straight podium finishes to add to his Argentina victory.
The low-grip nature of the Barcelona track is similar to how it was in Argentina, where Espargaro qualified on pole before scoring his historic first win.
As a result, most of Aprilia’s rivals have already highlighted Espargaro as being the strongest rider in Barcelona after Friday.
“I was shocked at the start,” Bagnaia, who was fourth overall on Friday, said when asked about the speed of the Aprilia when he followed it in FP1.
“But it was the first laps, and they already rode this year in this track with the street bike.
“So, it’s a little advantage but for sure Aprilia in a situation of low grip is very competitive.
“In traction, they [Aprilia] have really good traction. It’s something I already seen all year.
“But in this track they can make more of a difference because for all the rest the grip is lower.
“But I really don’t know because I didn’t try. For sure it’s a characteristic of that bike.
“Also, in Argentina the grip was low and they were fast.
“For sure, Aleix rides the Aprilia incredibly and Maverick is coming to riding it in the same way of Aleix. So, it could be difficult to beat them in this track.”
Espargaro urged for “calm” over Aprilia’s chances after Friday, while noting that he couldn’t “abuse” the strong points of the RS-GP today.
“It’s very, very low grip – less than low grip,” Espargaro said of the Barcelona circuit.
“I remember Barcelona was like Brno, now we no longer have Brno, Barcelona is the worst grip on the current calendar.
“So, you have to adapt to it. Unfortunately, on the rear everyone was on the same, we have the traction control so it’s very important to work on the electronics.
“But on the front I’m not feeling good because I cannot really abuse the good points of the bike.
“But overall I’m quite good. It’s just Friday, we have to be calm, but with the trend of this year and with the level of the grid, if you don’t start really good it’s difficult.”
