Aleix Espargaró didn’t achieve a result to his liking at the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix. Despite showing potential to fight at the top in both qualifying and the Sprint race, he faced many difficulties with grip and finished eighth in the main race. Now, he arrives at the Portuguese GP hopeful of doing better.
The Aprilia rider told the press: ‘I had a lot of fun in Qatar, honestly. I’m very proud and happy especially about the qualifying, which is very important this season and I proved in Qatar that we could fight for the pole position and also for the Sprint. Then there was nothing I could do in the race. I’m happy overall about my feeling with the bike, I’m having a lot of fun. Last season Maverick [Viñales] finished on the podium here, I set the track lap record, but due to my crash in the qualifying I couldn’t really fight on top because I started very far on the grid. But everything looks good’.
Regarding the tyre problems, Espargaró stated: ‘My idea is clear. Already in the warm-up lap going to the grid I felt that there wasn’t grip at all – it was impossible to ride the bike, it was like ice. And then to be able to finish in the points riding quite slow, in top ten, was important. There was nothing I could do. We know that one thing that we have to improve is the quality of the tyre because it happens a couple of times every season – not only to me, but also to many riders. Hopefully we can improve this’.
The start procedure that was repeated due to an issue with a bike wasn’t a cause for the problems according to the #41, as the temperature was constant and the situation was the same for everybody.