One of the interesting combinations in MotoGP so far this season is how well 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Aleix Espargaro’s old-school ‘body-on-the-bike’ riding style works with one of the most aerodynamically advanced machines the sport🐽 has seen🌊: The 2024 Aprilia RS-GP.

• Aleix “welcomes” difficult 2024 Aprilia: “I🐼🌌mportant thing is we are faster”

While Espargaro has been fast from his very first laps on the bike, factory team-mate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Maverick Vinales and Trackhouse rider Miguel Oliveir༒a - both proven MotoGP race winners with their modern bo▨dy-down cornering style on other machines - have had a tougher time adapting.

Both have even reverted to a more standard rear seat aero, while 🍌Espargaro has kept the radical ‘batmobile’ design.

The Qatar season-opener saw Espargaro qualify second on the grid, then take a Sprint podium with a strong ♎late charg🐼e. 

That made him a pre-race favourite for the full-length Grand Prix, only to suffer u♈🍷nexpected grip issues. Nevertheless, Espargaro remained the leading Aprilia rider, in eighth.

“Not beautiful, but effective!”

One theory is that by keeping his body closer to the bikeꩵ, Espargaro creates a more efficient airflow for the aerodyn𒀰amics during cornering.

However last year, the Spaniard, who at 34 is the oldest order on the grid, suggeste🅷d his style - which he describes as “not beautiful, but effective!” - also brings accel💙eration benefits.

“💯We try to analyse a lot in Aprilia… On the right corners, I stay more on the bike than the lefts. But when there are♔ more right corners, I’m faster! And when there are more left corners, like America, I’m slower,” Espargaro explained.

“So I lean [my body] less in the right [corners] but it looks like it's not that bad w🎐ith this bike. I create a bike to accelerate, so I don't really need to lean that much.”

“If you analyse the riding style of Raul [Fernandez], I love it," Espargaro said of Oliveira’s team-mate, who hangs far from t❀he bike. "But [sometimes] because he really leans a lot the bo💮dy, as soon he touches the throttle, he has a lot of spin.

“So yes, [my style] is notꦦ beautiful, but it's eff🏅ective!”

Espargaro is the only rider to so far win on an RS-GP, at Termas de Rio Hondo in 2022 followed by Silverstone and Barcelona in 2🍷023.

"Aleix’s riding style is completely different, but it's working"

Whatever the reason, Oliveira confirmed that Espargaro’s performance is currently ‘standing out💙’ and that his riding style is the obﷺvious difference compared to the other Aprilia riders.

But the contrast in physical height (Espargaro is 10cm taller than Oliveira and Vinales) means it’s not simply a case of tr𓄧ying to copy the Spaniard’s style, but more undersꩲtanding why it works and adjusting the bike set-up accordingly.

“[Aleix is] the one who is standing out the most compared to all of us. The ⛎only thing I can say is that his riding st🌃yle is completely different than what we ride. But it's working,” Oliveira explained during the Qatar weekend.

“So we as a group, as a team, have to understand how we can set up ꦕthe bike in order to take the maximum out of it with our style.

“I think it will come with experience🔜 and with a few races.”

Des💟cribing Espargaro’s style in his own words, the Portuguese said:

“[Aleix] keeps a lot of lean angle, [with his body] very static on the bike. And he never really tries to pick up the bike by being aggressive on the throttle just to gain the speed out of the corner. Even on the braking zones, the bike is quite stable, never𝕴 sliding. This kind of style.

“For him, it's quite🥂 natural, and it ꧅works, especially with this new bike.”

Oliveira added: “I tried to adapt as much as possible, but I can't grow in height! And it's just the way someone rides. You can adapt a few things [with your style] but it gets to a point where, your approach, your i෴nterpretation to the corner, you can only change so much.”

Oliveira, who finished 13th in Qatar after serv𓃲ing a long lapꦫ penalty carried over from 2023, will be back on his factory RS-GP in front of his home fans at Portimao this weekend.