GOOD TOP TEN BY ESPARGARÓ WHO FINISHES NINTH
After finding the right race setup, Aleix Espargaró took a nice ninth place in the GP of Australia. The new materials brought to Phillip Island, also in view of the evolution for 2019, required extensive testing in order to find the right settings, but the warm up session, where Aleix was one of the fastest on used tyres, already provided promising signs for the race.
The starting position penalised Espargaró greatly, forcing him to ride the race coming back from behind with very interesting times, managing to claw his way up to eighth place, a position he lost on the final lap. The Spanish rider also had to deal with pain in his left hand, struck during the sixth lap by debris from the accident between Márquez and Zarco.
Scott Redding did well, also aided by a few crashes, skilfully coming back from the 22nd spot on the starting grid to a thirteenth place finish to earn 3 championship points.