Aleix Espargaró was unable to fulfill the potential for a podium in the MotoGP Indonesian GP. The Aprilia rider crossed the finish line in tenth place and is aware that he made a mistake.
The Spaniard admitted that he made the wrong tire choice with the soft rear, and that cost him the opportunity to achieve a strong result: ‘A big mistake from me, basically, and from the team. It’s a team mistake, but I’m the last one to decide, so it’s a big mistake. I had a very bad feeling in the warm-up. Maybe it wasn’t the best tire in the warm-up. Instead of insisting and using the medium like everyone else in the race, I decided to go with the soft. And actually, I was expecting the drop-off to maybe be a bit later during the race. Today I missed a good opportunity’.
Asked about what could have been done with the medium tire, Espargaró replied: ‘It doesn’t make sense to say. I was one of the fastest in the pack since Friday and surely today we would have had a great opportunity to fight for the podium. But I made a mistake. It’s simply regrettable, because in MotoGP it’s difficult to be able to fight for wins and podiums, and wasting an opportunity like this is not very good‘.
