Aleix Espargaro reckons getting stuck behind VR46 duo Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini cost him a chance to fight for victory in the Italian Grand Prix.
Having started seventh at Mugello, the Aprilia ace fired through to fourth by the end of the opening tour, though he was soon relegated backwards by eventual race winner Francesco Bagnaia and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
While the duo swiftly made their way through the customer VR46 Ducati’s of Bezzecchi and Marini to later battle between themselves for supremacy, Espargaro found himself unable to get the better of the Italian pair until he finally made his way through to third just half-a-dozen tours from home.
Despite bringing his RS-GP home for a fourth-straight rostrum result, Esparagro was left a little frustrated as he believes he had the speed to fight for the win had he not been stuck behind the VR46 machines, though he conceded both the squad’s riders “were awesome” given their relative little experience in the premier class.
“I’m very happy as it has been a fantastic weekend, it’s a shame that yesterday we couldn’t be more competitive in qualifying as I knew it would be tricky to overtake in the race,” explained Espargaro.
“The VR46 guys were awesome because with the lack of experience they have they made no mistakes and very fast, so unfortunately I lost some precious time that I needed to help fight for the victory.
“I was aiming for the victory but I’ll take the podium and I’m very happy with the points that I bring, Mugello is always a very difficult track to fight against the Ducati’s and it’s true that today I was hoping to reduce the gap with Fabio but he was very fast.
“Today the engine was very good, better than Fabio’s but I was not able to beat him but the bike is very good and we are very close, so hopefully we can beat him in my home GP.
“I overtook quite a lot in the first laps three or four times, I fought with Joan (Zarco) and the VR46 bikes as well as Fabio (Quartararo) at the start so it was fun.
“Either way there have been many beautiful things for us this weekend, I hope I put on a good show out there, there were a lot of people from Piaggio (Aprilia owners) here so I hope they enjoyed it, the podium is a good trophy.”
Espargaro also weighed in on recent discussions about whether the current aerodynamic revolution that is sweeping through MotoGP was negatively affecting the racing, the Argentinean GP winner believing that these worries are unfounded, and that the main reason for the reduced overtaking in recent times is a result of the closeness between the riders and bikes currently found in the series.
“We are talking all the time that we can’t overtake because of the wings, tyre pressures and things but we also have to remember the level of every rider in this category is unbelievable,” added Espargaro.
“Forget the technology and aerodynamics, everybody brakes late, everybody is very fast and nobody makes mistakes so this is the reason why overtaking is hard.”
