Aleix Espargaro says he was “very angry” while stuck behind Jack Miller and Marc Marquez in the battle for third in the Spanish Grand Prix due to lacking braking prowess.
The Aprilia man made a sluggish start after once again struggling with the clutch fitted to his RS-GP and initially dropped to sixth before re-passing LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami for fifth by the end of the opening tour.
With runaway leaders Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo sprinting ahead, Espargaro found himself stuck behind the factory Ducati of Miller as well as Marquez’s Honda, the Argentina GP victor possessing “great corner speed” but finding himself unable to mount an attack due to the duo having superlative braking ability.
Errors for both Marquez and Miller at the same time at Turn 13 just five tours from the end allowed Espargaro to move into third and escape with his superior overall lap speed, the Spaniard reckoning he could have potentially challenged the lead pair harder had he been able to enjoy clean track.
“I was very angry because I couldn’t overtake them (Marquez and Miller), I made a very bad start again so we need to improve the clutch because I cannot understand it and I keep doing bad starts every race,” said Espargaro.
“I had great corner speed compared to them but I couldn’t show it because they both brake very late, but I knew in a 40 minutes race that one or two mistakes would arrive.
“I stayed very close all the time trying to wait for the errors, Jack braked really early in Turn 13 so I decided to go inside him and then I saw Marc going wide, and I knew this was my moment.
“When I saw the pit-board and it was five laps to the end I was super focussed, I set three really fast low 1:38s laps and built a big gap and realised that maybe my pace was enough to follow Fabio and Pecco, but this is racing and you also need to be good at overtaking and I wasn’t today.”
Espargaro added that he was ecstatic to have finally achieved a ”special” podium finish at the Jerez circuit having never achieved the feat across the entirety of his motorcycle racing career, a result that also means Aprilia now lose the concessions it has enjoyed over recent seasons.
“I’m really happy because this race was special for me because I’ve raced here in Jerez since I was a kid and never had a podium here, so to achieve that in MotoGP is crazy,” continued Espargaro.
“I started dreaming after Qatar, but this is real and we are doing a great job.
“We have to know that for the moment the feeling I have – even if it’s not quite on Fabio’s (Quartararo) level – is good as if I wasn’t stuck behind Marc (Marquez) and Jack (Miller) I was pretty close to them, although I was just missing something (to fight for win.)
“The key this year will be the consistency and making no mistakes because we have completed almost 33% of the championship and we are only seven points behind, so we are doing a great job.”
