The Aprilia rider completed an exemplary weekend until he reached the last lap of the race, where he went from ecstasy to absolute misery. The eldest of the Espargaró brothers, both originally from Granollers (Barcelona), just five minutes from the Circuit, had the biggest mistake of his life in front of his fans. The ‘Espargarins’ came here to share the sweetest moment of their career with #41 and were disappointed almost as big as their idol’s.
Located second entering the penultimate lap, Aleix was discounted by looking at the tower at the end of the straight, which marks the positions and the number of laps remaining. Unlike what happens on other tracks, the last lap on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit is marked as ‘0’, not as ‘1’.
Crossing the finish line on the penultimate lap, the Catalan let go and began to celebrate second place to the surprise of the members of his team, who, from the workshop, raised their hands to their heads.
After realizing his blunder, the Spaniard rejoined the track in sixth, and in a last ditch effort he managed to overtake Luca Marini to finish fifth. The loss of points (nine) was not as great as the slab that his conscience will carry, even more listening to him later, with a broken voice and making an effort not to burst into tears.
This episode recalls the one that Julián Simón experienced when he raced in 125cc and began to celebrate the victory ahead of time, also at the Catalunya Grand Prix, in 2009.
“The only thing I can do is apologize to the team, because it was 100% my fault. These mistakes are unacceptable in this category,” Aleix summed up, before detailing the sequence of events.
“The board was very close to the corner and I didn’t have time to see the information, so I looked at the tower and I saw ‘lap 1’, so I did a lap and I cut gas. I didn’t remembered that here, in Montmeló, the last lap is ‘0’. I was very focused and I didn’t notice the checkered flag or anything”, said the Aprilia driver, who as soon as he returned to the garage received a loud applause from the entire Noale brand troop.
“I saw on a big screen that it showed Massimo [Aprilia CEO Rivola] putting his hands to his head, as if the engine had broken. I saw that all the other riders were pulling and I pushed hard. the 12th. In terms of points it has not been a huge loss either, but I had the 20 points assured”, settled Espargaró, who with this result and the victory of Fabio Quartararo maintains second place in the championship, despite his disadvantage with respect to the French becomes now 23 points.
