Aleix Espargaró was one of the protagonists of the French GP but quickly began to lose positions on the starting grid and it all started after being hit by a rider, but it didn’t stop there, as later he was also hit by another one, and in both cases, without any of the riders who hit him being penalized.
The Aprilia Racing rider explained what happened and why his performance dropped: “I wasn’t brilliant today, but I wasn’t that bad. The pace was good enough to finish among the top five, but Enea [Bastianini] hit me at a very high speed, fortunately it was in the run-off area.”
The Spaniard questioned why his opponents were not penalized for hitting him: “I don’t understand why he wasn’t penalized for the action, and then I lost a lot of time behind DiGia [Fabio Di Giannantonio], behind [Fabio] Quartararo, I overtook them a few times, but they overtook me again and then, in the last chicane, Franco [Morbidelli] also hit me, also very hard, and then [Brad] Binder overtook me and apologized after the white flag and there was no penalty either. There was nothing I could do, it was a strange race.”
It should be noted that Bastianini received a penalty of two long laps, but not for hitting Espargaró, but for cutting the racing line.
Questioned about the touches, since there were not many images of the incident, #41 was clear: ‘Enea yes, he had to catch the bike, it was very fast, but also Franco. If I hadn’t caught the bike, I would have fallen. The feeling is that they penalize us if we make a mistake, but we have to judge and penalize the action, not the final result, the outcome. I really didn’t understand. I lost my race there, in that part and at that stage of the race, not to fight for the victory, for the podium, but I was doing well, six seconds’.
And he added: ‘I could fight for the top five. I was expecting to be faster, but I didn’t have grip. I hoped that, with lower temperatures, I would have better traction and yesterday I felt much stronger and today not. The feeling I have is that I have some speed during the weekends, but I can’t find stability and push like I did in the past’.
