Aleix Espargaro crashed when he was in a direct fight with Brad Binder, thus dashing his aspirations of fighting for victory, after having qualified in 3rd place.
In a debrief, Espargaro explained what caused him to lose the front of his bike, taking full blame for what happened:
– I felt very strong today, very fast, and I tried not to lose the race because I saw that Jorge and Maverick were pushing hard at the front and I felt that I could fight for the victory. I tried to overtake and made a mistake. I didn’t have space, so I had to brake on the dirty part and that’s the problem. I apologize to Brad (Binder) and everyone at KTM. I tried to avoid it, but in order not to hit him, I blocked the front in the dirty part and lost the front. (…) I don’t want to make excuses… I’m sorry for Brad, I ruined his race and he’s not to blame that the track is dirty or whatever. It’s not his fault, it’s mine. But you have to overtake and there’s only one line, so the risk is there.
Still, and despite not being able to finish the Sprint, the #41 Aprilia revealed that he is confident for tomorrow, revealing that he believes he has the pace to beat the man of the moment, Jorge Martin:
– I have enough pace to fight for the win tomorrow, especially considering the tyre wear, I’m fine too, so tomorrow I think the goal has to be to try and win, but obviously the start will be very important. Today again I had some problems with the clutch and lost some places at the start, and then when you feel strong you don’t want to waste time, but maybe I have to be more patient. (…) I think I can be faster than him. Hopefully I can overtake him and walk away, set my pace, but he’s really flying. What he did today, he didn’t have the pace to do it, so it’s fantastic. If you want to win the title, it has to be like that, it’s very important.