Aleix Espargaró knew that he was going to suffer in Austin, a circuit that, as he himself said, was “marked in red” due to the difficulty it caused the Aprilia and his own riding style, with braking that practically set the speedometer of the bike to zero. .
However, the Spaniard clearly improved his performance compared to last year, when he finished outside the points and with five crashes over the weekend.
“I am not happy because I have set the bar very high, and this is good and bad. When you do a race like this after winning, you can’t be happy but last year here it was 20th and we finished 11th”, said Aleix at the end of the race.
“It was a very difficult circuit for Aprilia and for me, many people have suffered today, we have come close to Martín who started on pole, except for Rins and Enea, everyone has suffered a lot”, he added.
Despite the fact that the leadership has only lasted a week, now he is third in the general standings, six points behind Enea Bastianini, who regains the lead in the general, Espargaró does not lose confidence in continuing in the battle.
“This is very long and if I thought we had options before, now I still think the same or more after a good race on such a difficult circuit.”
If Austin is the worst circuit for the Aprilia, finishing 10th, Maverick Viñales, and 11th Aleix, must be marked as a good step forward.
“If it is the worst race of the season I will sign it, everything is very difficult, everything is very tight, it is a very complicated track for us, you stop the bike from zero up to five times in each lap and that for our bike is complicated, I am satisfied, I think it will be a good championship and when we get to Europe with circuits that are better for us we will have good results”, he predicted.
In the second half of the race, Aleix was overtaken by Marc Márquez, who lost many places at the start (19th) and arrived in comeback mode.
“Marc had a different rhythm, he was very competitive, I held him once but I preferred to be smart and not fight with him because he had a different gear. I tried to follow him a bit to put distance with those who came from behind, but he is very good at stopping the bike to zero, he has a lot of tact, and here there are no fast corners, which is his Achilles heel. If it came out well on the grid, I’m sure he would have fought for victory”, settled the man from Granollers.
