Aleix Espargaró did not go beyond tenth in the Indonesian MotoGP, unlike his Aprilia teammate who finished second. And the choice of the soft rear tire greatly hindered his chances.
The Spaniard said the tire started to lose performance earlier than expected: ‘In fact, it was earlier than I expected. I expected to at least make the first 18, 20 laps at a reasonable pace, but on the tenth lap I started to feel a drop. It’s a shame, it’s really a shame because I had a very good speed throughout the weekend‘.
After making the same mistake for the second time in 2023, Espargaró believes that with a different tire choice he could at least fight for the podium: ‘Now it’s stupid to say that I could win. I felt that I was very, very fast and strong all weekend. And with the medium tire maybe I wouldn’t win, but I would fight for the podium. And it was my mistake; it’s the second time this season – I made it in Germany and I made it here. I’m very sorry‘.
