The Aprilia driver did not complete free practice fast enough in one lap to qualify for Q2, and in the qualifying play-off, despite leading it, he was overtaken in the end by Marc Márquez and Miguel Oliveira, who were finally the who made it to Q2.
The curious thing is that with time still at stake, Aleix Espargaró went to the garage, which left him with no chance to try it one last time.
“I gave it my all on my last lap, we don’t have traction with the rear tire, we abused the front brake a lot and that makes it lose a lot of performance after two laps, we can’t give more, it was impossible to go below 30.2 and that’s why I decided to stop” , Aleix explained at the end of qualifying this Saturday at the Thai Grand Prix.
“I don’t know very well why we are doing so badly on this circuit, it is a track that I like a lot and where Maverick Viñales has achieved good results in the past, but we are not doing well this weekend, we have a lot of problems,” he added. .
Starting 13th, for Aleix the race will be one of survival trying to attack from the start to gain positions.
“The race pace isn’t too bad, I wouldn’t have finished better than eighth or ninth in Q2 with my one-lap time, we’re always a bit behind the rest,” he said.
“I would like to make a good start, the best of the season, in the end it is not the end of the world to start 13th, I hope to be able to make a top 10 finish,” he summed up his aspirations.
“We are not competitive here, but it is on weekends like these that we have to try to extract oil,” settled the man from Granollers.
