Poor, poor Aleix Espargaró! While he was having a remarkable race on the handlebars of his Aprilia RS-GP, his engine once again betrayed him…
The only positive point of this Grand Prix from Teruel to Alcañiz is that the speed of which Aleix I will espargaro and its RS-GP demonstrated throughout the sessions (8th on the first day, 5th in FP4) was confirmed during Sunday's race.
On Saturday, a cumulative 96 thousandths of a second was enough to keep the Aprilia rider away from the first four rows of the starting grid for the Teruel Grand Prix. A tiny gap which only made the Aprilia camp very frustrated, an emotion however attenuated by the good pace established during the testing sessions in preparation for the race.
During the morning FP3 session, a place in the top 10 which would have pre-qualified him for Q2 eluded the Catalan driver by only 27 thousandths of a second. In Q1, just 69 thousandths of a second relegated his place on the starting grid to the fifth row, in thirteenth position. A solid overall performance which augured well for a great race…
Aleix Espargaro: «
Usually thirteenth place doesn't satisfy me, but today it's different. I have been consistently fast, I have good pace and in qualifying I also had an exceptional lap. It's a shame not to have progressed to Q2 because, with this speed, I could have fought for a place on one of the first three rows. The starting position will force me to be very aggressive in the first laps, but if I manage to stay in the leading group, I will be able to aim for a good race. »
Starting from thirteenth place on the grid, the Catalan quickly made his way to the hot zone of the top 10 with assertive overtaking and brilliant pace. With three laps remaining, the Aprilia rider was preparing his attack on Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Viñales for seventh place when a technical problem forced him to throw in the towel.
Aleix Espargaro: « I have to be satisfied with my overall performance this weekend. We have greatly improved the configuration compared to last week. Yesterday in qualifying I was extremely fast and today in the race I also gave my all. I made some good overtakes with top 5 pace and, with a few laps to go, I had easily caught Quartararo and Viñales. As I was about to attack Fabio, the engine stopped and I couldn't do anything. It's a tough pill to swallow but, as I said, I'm happy with the work being done here in Aragón. »
The Aprilia rider scores his fourth clean result of the season. Looking forward to Valencia…
Teruel MotoGP Grand Prix standings:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
