Aleix Espargaró had a race to forget in the Australian MotoGP. He finished eighth, more than nine seconds behind the winner, much to his disappointment. However, he does not blame the altered schedule.
Due to the forecast of bad weather on Sunday, the main race was moved to Saturday, so the riders did not have as many chances to prepare for it – there was no sprint race or warm-up as usual before the GP.
Despite the difficulties aboard the Aprilia, Espargaró insisted that there was plenty of preparation time when asked if the different schedule affected him: ‘No, no, no excuses. We had plenty of time on Friday with very good conditions, also in FP2. Nothing would have changed if we had raced on Sunday‘.