Espargaro stormed to an historic first pole for Aprilia in the modern MotoGP era on Saturday at Termas de Rio Hondo and looks among the fastest on race pace following practice.
Aprilia has been on a steady trajectory towards the front of the field since last season, while Espargaro’s run to fourth in Qatar last month proved to be the closest the Italian marque has come to winning a race in the MotoGP era.
Quartararo – who qualified sixth and showed strong race pace in practice – says Espargaro’s pole charge came as little surprise, but fears the Spaniard is capable of breaking the pack on Sunday if he can get a good start.
“I was surprised today,” Quartararo said.
“Not for the pole position because in FP2 they got first and second.
“About the first position, I’m not really surprised. But I’m surprised how Aleix managed to get the pace he did on the soft, [it] was amazing.
“There’s a good chance if he makes a good start he can pull away.
“But I think that we have a little bit of margin in pace because I did decide to make one lap with 15 laps on the medium tyre [in FP2] and I did 1m39.2s.
“We will see the tyre consumption for tomorrow and let’s see how it’s going.”
Espargaro’s brother Pol believes the Aprilia rider is “the main guy” for Sunday’s race, but also pointed towards the speed Maverick Vinales on the sister RS-GP showed on Saturday as being one to watch.
When the Honda rider was asked if his brother is the favourite, Espargaro – who will start fourth - said: “Yeah, definitely. Aleix for sure, he’s the main guy.
“But after that, Maverick is fast, the Aprilias are fast! And then Fabio is very fast too, but for sure the Aprilias showed an amazing performance.
“It’s stunning what they did and how fast they are.
“Hopefully the track will keep changing and improving and our Honda will get faster and faster with more grip.
“But I don’t believe this is going to be as beautiful and easy as it sounds.
“I’m happy as a brother, as a rival I prefer him to be on pole than the other rivals. It hurts a little but I’m happy. In the end, hard work pays off.”
