Aleix Espargaró narrowly missed out on the podium in his last MotoGP race in Catalunya. The home rider finished in fourth place, after being overtaken by Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) towards the end with no response.
The Spaniard from Aprilia explained that he couldn’t be competitive with the medium tire: ‘The soft tire was much stronger, but in Sunday’s race with the medium, I never felt good, I never felt strong. I tried everything I could to be competitive, but I couldn’t keep up with the riders in front. In the end, I tried my best to stay close to Marc, but I was just sliding, so there was nothing I could do‘.
The winner was Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), ahead of Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati), and Espargaró acknowledged the work of both rivals with the tires: ‘From the start, zero grip. I couldn’t touch the throttle. It’s obvious that Pecco and Jorge did a good job, they improved a lot compared to last year, they were extremely fast with the medium tire and we couldn’t. With the soft tire, I could match them, but with the medium, it was impossible‘.
Despite trying to manage the tires well, #41 was unable to maintain them, as he explained: ‘I tried to save the tire from the beginning, knowing that it would be dramatic at the end. But still, halfway through the race, I had no tire left. I was sliding a lot from the start, so I was wearing out the tire. Even if I tried to lift it up, the issue is that halfway through the race, the top two started to fly and it was not possible for me to keep up‘.
Questioned about whether he considered using the soft rear tire, Espargaró replied: ‘Yes, it was a possibility. In the final part of the Sprint I was still fast, but we considered with Michelin and my team that our theoretical consumption for a full race was too high, it was too risky. So, we decided to go with the medium – which is not an excuse: the first and second on the podium used the medium tire. But it didn’t work for me‘.
