Aleix Espargaro Reveals his Biggest Mistake Of the Season
Categories: MotoGP
After his first win of the season at Silverstone, Aleix Espargaro looks back on the first half of the season. The Spaniard is very critical of his own performance.
At the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, the big breakthrough finally comes for Aprilia – Aleix Espargaro secures his second career victory.
For the Spaniard, who found his way back to success after a rather average first half of the season, it should now continue like this.
“If I don’t make any more mistakes and work like I did last year, I can fight for a top-3 result.”
Espargaro is currently 107 points behind world championship leader Francesco Bagnaia in 6th place in the standings. The fact that there is such a large gap to the top after just nine Grand Prix is, according to Espargaro, down to his own mistakes.
He admits to having “approached the season the wrong way.” “At the beginning of the season my expectations were too high. I started the season thinking I was going to win the title. That was a mistake.”
“I made too many mistakes, it was never good enough. I crashed in Argentina and America, lost a lot of points. If I had started with a different approach, I think that today I would surely be in the top 5 of the world championship.”
Jerez was a breaking point
The most disappointing race weekend for Espargaro, however, was not one in which he came up completely empty. Worse, he said, was the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez.
In late April, Espargaro had experienced pole position in qualifying. In both races, however, the start pace in particular was not enough for a top position.
“I lost five positions at the start after starting four times from pole because there were two red flags. So I started from pole four times and lost five positions each time,” the Spaniard looked back on his home race.
“That made me angry because then I wasn’t able to make up for it and overtake – because of the pressure in the front tire. From that point on, I pushed Aprilia to do something.”
