After finishing the Italian Grand Prix, Aleix Espargaró managed to get his RS-GP up to third position on the podium at the home GP for Aprilia. The rider from Granollers has chained 4 consecutive podiums, becoming the rider with the most drawers of honor accumulated in the season.
Although it tried to give it its all at the eighth round of the year, the RS-GP had to settle for third place on the Italian qualifying sheet. “I’m very happy, Mugello is very special,” explained the Spaniard after crossing the checkered flag behind Fabio Quartararo. “It’s my home GP and I’ve tried everything.”
“In the end I couldn’t fight for the victory, although I think that in terms of pace I wasn’t slower than Pecco [Bagnaia] or Fabio [Quartararo]”.
Despite being satisfied with third position, the Aprilia rider confirmed that he wanted more than just the last step of the podium.
“Today I knew that it would be difficult for me to overtake the Ducatis and I spent 15 laps trying to overtake them. I was very focused. I went all out, trying to win. But I lost a lot of time with the Ducatis, because even though they were rookies I couldn’t overtake them” .
“Today I wanted a little more. I knew it was an important weekend for Aprilia and before the race I made it known that today I had to risk a little more”
The Aprilia is having its best debut, despite the Spaniard insisting that “it has to improve”.
“My bike runs the same or more than the Ducati slipstream, with the brake inside I think my bike is the best, better than the Yamaha and the Ducati, but when I release the brake I think it goes a bit straight and it lacks a bit , with too much load from the front and that is something that needs to be improved”.
“In Le Mans I suffered a lot from the engine and not today. The first thing I did was congratulate the engineers. Maverick [Viñales] helped me a lot this morning [in the warm up]”.
The Aprilia rider is 8 points behind the current leader, Fabio Quartararo .
“Fabio [Quartararo] is a bit more aggressive in overtaking than I am and I’ve lost valuable time. It’s been a bit frustrating.”
“This confirms to me that I have to be more aggressive when overtaking”, concluded the driver from Granollers.
