A disastrous race for Aleix Espargaró in one of his favorite circuits. The Aprilia man has gone from achieving his first MotoGP victory in Argentina to scratch a single point in the race that was held this afternoon at the Circuito de Termas de Río Hondo, a test conditioned by a light and constant rain that forced the 17 drivers on the grid to start with wet tires.
The man from Granollers did not start badly, and even gained a couple of positions as soon as the traffic lights went out, reaching 8th place; However, from then on, everything went downhill and without brakes, ceding positions against his rivals until crossing the finish line in 15th placescoring a single point on his locker.
“It’s a shame that at one of my favorite circuits, starting like we started in the dry, butlost the chance to fight for victory because of the rain“, lamented the one from Aprilia to the DAZN microphone after the race. “But it’s not an excuse, it’s not worth it, you have to race in the dry and in the wet, and today really was a nightmare, one of my worst races in MotoGP.”
When trying to shed light on his feelings about the RS-GP, Aleix has commented that “It seemed that the rear tire was punctured, I had no traction at all, it was very long”, an agony that lasted 25 laps and that has led him to finish third from last, ahead of the only two drivers who crashed at Termas today: Pecco Bagnaia and Brad Binder.
Aleix’s was not the only Aprilia that suffered today in Termas; neither Maverick Viñales (12th) nor the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team rider Raúl Fernández (14th) have achieved a good harvest of points in Argentina: “It was incredible, we went very slowly. We finished the three Aprilias at the bottom of the standings, quite close together and with the same problems. I started well, aggressive, I think I was fourth or fifth, but then I noticed that the I couldn’t even give the bike full throttle on the straight, I was spinning a lot. There was no traction at all, it was a very long race”.
The great protagonist of Sunday in Argentina has been Marco Bezzecchi, winner of his first race in MotoGP and new leader of the championship. For Aleix, the Italian “He’s a stronger leader than he seems,” especially after checking his speed here in Termas from the first day: “For me yesterday he was the fastest rider by far in the dry, even on Friday, when I was the fastest in the dry, the one with the fastest pace next to me was Marco. In the dry I was one of the favourites, and to be able to win in the wet… that’s because you’re superior. He is a very good rider, a talent for the future, with one of the best, if not the best bike on the grid. You have to count on him.”
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His crash on Saturday in the Sprint Race and the 15th place signed today in Argentina leave Aleix Espargaró far from the best in the general classification. The Spaniard is 13th with only 12 points on his scoreboardfar from the 50 points accumulated by the fittest driver of the moment, Marco Bezzecchi.