Sepang.- “Now there are circuits that are going well for us, many things will happen on the Asian tour”, was Aleix Espargaró’s prediction after the Aragón Grand Prix , the last before a series of five transoceanic races in which the Aprilia He was waiting for the great opportunity of his life to present itself.
Far from it, the role of the Aprilia riders has not been, not even remotely, in the average of what was achieved during the rest of the season and the Catalan rider, this Sunday, already mathematically lost any chance of fighting for the title. And he remains third overall by a single point compared to Enea Bastianini.
“The Asian tour has been a nightmare. The bike has been a dream all year and now it’s a nightmare. The others haven’t improved; we’ve taken a step back. It’s lucky that Maverick Viñales is there, because if not the team would think that I’m the one who’s slow”, Aleix explained visibly upset this Sunday.
“The bike didn’t run at all on the straight and had no traction. Both riders have the same problem. In Europe one of the two Aprilias almost always finished on the podium,” he recalled.
“We have made a fool of ourselves in the last three races”, was Aleix’s crude sentence.
“But I have no doubt that next year we will go well. In the last few races I have only scored 15 points,” he insisted.
Despite this bad ending to the season, Aleix doesn’t want to throw away what will be, no matter what, the best season of his life.
“The year we’ve had is crazy, one thing doesn’t take away from the other. This World Cup has been great for us. I hope this will help us learn. I think it’s a purely technical issue,” was his diagnosis.
“We don’t have the size of other factories. That, on the one hand, highlights what we have achieved, but at the same time it brings us back to reality.”
Finally, Aleix was questioned about the collision with Franco Morbidelli, who on the last lap won the position by leaning on his bike and almost knocking him to the ground.
“I don’t know what Morbidelli is doing. I don’t know where his head is. He’s doing crazy things every two times three. They gave him a three-second penalty, but in Valencia he should start the last one, or from the garage,” was his sentence after sanctioning Management of Race to the Italian with three seconds, which allowed Aleix to recover 10th position in the race and maintain third position overall by a single point now.
