Aleix Espargaro’s Thai Grand Prix ꦑwas “saved” by a new deveꦍlopment from his helmet supplier which helped him cope with what he viewed as poor visibility.

In comparison to, for example, ജlast year’s Japanese Grand Pr🌄ix, this year’s Thai race was much less wet.

Espargaro, though, said that the visibility was “very bad” in Buriram, and thanked his helmet supplier for developing specific t💝ear-offs for use in the rain which he said “saved my race”.

“I’m happy that Kabuto has been working this year with rain tear-offs,🔯” Espargaro said.

“I didn’t have them last year. Today they saved my race. I just had two, I will neeಞd five or six.

“Two tear-offs, plus cleaning with the hand was good enough, but the problem is that we don’t have tear-offs for the bike, so the bike was completely blind, was full brown, and in the straight you had to look 🀅[over the screen], so it was a bit tricky, but I’m very happy about the helmet.”

Espargaro’s race was not a standout moment from his almost-fiꦇnished career, but it did ultimately end with a top-10 finish.

“I was not⛄ fantastic,” Espargaro said after finishing ninth in Thailand. “I did a good start, a good first part of the race; actually I was behind Pedro [Acosta] the first two or three laps, but then I never had a really good feeling, a really good pace.

“I made a mistake in turn three, I went wide and I lost a lot of seconds and positions💜.

“After that, I just tried to co🐲ncentrate with myself, tried to do a good p𝔉ace.

“I don’t like to justify my race by a position when ꦬthe gap to the winners is high, but during this weekend when I have struggled a lot — I had a big crash on Friday, I did five laps on Friday — so after a difficul🉐t weekend, P9 in the race, I’m happy.”

Espargaro explained that the grip𝄹 issues Aprilia suffered in the dry in Thailand remained in wet conditions.

“They [thওe problems] remain,” he said. “In the middle section of the track where you cannot transfer front-to-rear, we struggle a lot with the rear gr꧑ip.

“Maverick [Vinales] and I had similar problems. We were together, when I made a mistake I lost the wheel o🔥f Maverick, but we had very similar problems.

“The hℱeat problems, obviously, we didn’t suffer in the wet race, which is great, but we still have the same problems. So, Aprilia have to work hard for the future.”

On the other hand, the factory Aprilia riders, particularly Espargaro’s teammate Vinales, were closer to the🍒 win in Thai🅠land than they have been in other wet races.

For example, ♊in Thailand in 2022, Vinales finished seventh and was 14.566 seconds off the win, but in last weekend’s Buriram race📖 he was seventh again and 8.498 seconds off the win.

“We didn’t ♑finish that far from the winner, from the podium, which in a very long race like this is always positives,” said Esapr🐲garo, who was 10 seconds further back of his teammate in ninth.

“So, both bikes in the top-10 is a good results, and our lap times in mid-race were not v🦹ery far from the pod﷽ium ones.”

Espargaro expla൩ined that there were some setup changes which led to Aprilia’s wet weather imp🐓rovements in Thailand.

“Before the race, I tried to go back to the 2024 aerodynamics package to try to turn more▨ with the rear,” he said.

“We made the bike a lot shorter, trying♎ to put load on the rear to gain some grip. In the wet, it works, it pays off,💃 and I’m happy, actually.

“Our idea is to test next week in the dry in Malaysia, to go back to the 2024 aerodynamic spec, also with the swingarm with this aerodynamic wing that KTM is running𒁏. We don’ꦐt stop to try to improve.”