Augusto Fernandez had a solid weekend as a wildcard, finishing second as Yamaha's best representative.
Called in to replace Miguel Oliveira at Pramac for two months, Augusto Fernandez had already competed in three Grands Prix this season before the one in Aragon. However, this was his first as a test driver and wildcard, and he knew that a lot of work lay ahead of him, in addition to having to perform well on track.
The Spaniard had made no secret of the difficulty of the time attack after a month away from MotoGP, but he had found his rhythm in the sprint race on Saturday. He was on the verge of finishing second best Yamaha rider, ahead of Álex Rins, Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira, but saw his race end due to a technical problem three laps from the finish.
On Sunday, in the main race, he encountered more difficulties, and was only able to move up the standings thanks to crashes at the front. Moving from 18th on the grid to 14th, he spent the 23 laps with the Yamaha riders' group, and managed to overtake Jack Miller at the end of the race for 13th position. He thus scored three points, and this time finished second best representative of the brand, behind Álex Rins, and in front of the two Pramac drivers.
A satisfaction for number #7, who did a lot of work throughout the weekend and who had the satisfaction of seeing that he had the pace of the others, despite the general difficulties. "It wasn't an easy race, but I'm happy, especially since I didn't feel as good as I did in the sprint race in the first part of the race. With seven laps to go, I started to feel the bike better, and I set my best time on the last lap.", did he declare.
“Overall, that was my weak point: managing to take advantage of a new tire. But overall, I'm happy with my weekend. We did a really good job. It's not easy to try a lot of things, I'm super happy. As a wildcard, it's good to score some points. We were competitive this weekend, riding in the Yamaha riders' group. It was good for me. Of course, the weekend wasn't easy for Yamaha, everyone struggled, but I'm happy to have been there, with the same difficulties.”
Results of the Aragon Grand Prix :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com