Arriving in Aragon, Aleix Espargaró was the first to proclaim to anyone who would listen that he would probably not achieve his performance last year which had brought him into the top 5 zone with his Aprilia. The meeting started, he saw his brother get hurt again and he said that he wanted more than anything to end this cursed season. And then there was this Sunday and the race. Which ended in sixth place. The driver and the manufacturer have thus seen the light…
And it feels good ! At the arrival, Aleix Espargaro commented: “ you can't imagine how hard it was to keep motivation, sometimes I lost it. I worked like never before for the Aprilia, despite low morale, because we continued to carry out tests without being able to progress. I couldn't sleep at night. So I think this result feels good, because it brought enthusiasm back into the team ".
Il commente sur sa prestation : ” la clé de la course d’aujourd’hui a été les 5 premiers tours. Après un bon départ, j’ai réussi à être très rapide, restant collé à Pedrosa et maintenant le contact avec le groupe de tête. J’ai poussé immédiatement parce que je savais qu’il y aurait à gérer la consommation de pneus en fin de course. Je suis cependant convaincu que j’avais une carte à jouer dans la lutte avec les Suzuki mais malheureusement je devais faire face à Pedrosa dont la Honda était vraiment rapide dans la ligne droite. J’avais du mal à le suivre " …
So there is still work to do, but finishing nine seconds behind the winner is very encouraging: “ it's a good result, but Aragon is also my favorite track. I changed the way I worked with my chief mechanic Pietro, both in terms of setup and management of the weekend, focusing my efforts on the race and changing the geometry of the RS-GP. It's not bad, but we're not satisfied yet. However, this result is a reward for the whole team ».
Aragon Grand Prix, MotoGP, J.3: classification
| 1 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 41'55.949 |
| 2 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | +0.648 |
| 3 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | +1.259 |
| 4 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | +2.638 |
| 5 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | +5.274 |
| 6 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | +9.396 |
| 7 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | +14.285 |
| 8 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +15.199 |
| 9 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | +16.375 |
| 10 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +22.457 |
| 11 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Honda | +27.025 |
| 12 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | +27.957 |
| 13 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | +28.821 |
| 14 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | +32.345 |
| 15 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | +37.639 |
| 16 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | +39.585 |
| 17 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | +40.763 |
| 18 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | +56.296 |
| 19 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | +58.981 |
| 20 | 81 | Jordi TORRES | Ducati | +59.513 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 19 lapses | |
| 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | 22 lapses | |
| Not Finished 1st Lap | ||||
| 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 0 laps |
