Espargarò, surprise podium in the Sprint: “Happy and proud”

Behind the Ducatis the ‘Captain’ appears

Behind the two now ‘usual’ contenders for the world title, Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, who also shared the first two positions today at the Red Bull Ring in the Sprint race of the Austrian GP, ​​someone unexpected appears: third at the finish line it was in fact Aleix Espargaro with Aprilia. The result was totally unexpected, given that the Noale bike historically does not like the super speed and sudden braking of the track that rises between the mountains of Styria.

“I am very happy and proud – commented a very happy Espargarò to the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP – It’s probably one of the best Saturdays of my career because this is a very difficult track for me and here I struggle a lot to stop the bike. From yesterday to today we changed the setting a lot and also in qualifying it went well, as well as the pace we had in the Sprint. I’m happy: I know that the first three Ducatis are on another level, but we weren’t very far away, so I’m satisfied”.

Winning strategy

There race strategy of the Aprilia ‘captain’ was to push hard from the start, without worrying too much about the tyres, and it worked: “After a start like that I thought I would go worse: I thought I would go fast at the beginning of the race, but I didn’t think I would be behind them. (Bagnaia, Martin, Marquez) for 7-8 laps in the low 29s and finding myself only three seconds off the leading group was interesting. I used the rear tire 1000%. I know that the three Ducatis, especially Pecco and Jorge, check if they are at the limit without splitting the tire in two, while I started in qualifying mode. So on lap 7-8 I started to suffer, but I managed to maintain a good pace and the riders behind me were not faster, so the tactic worked well”.

Even in view of tomorrow’s ‘classic’ race, however, there are still some aspects to be sorted out: “From yesterday to today I moved my weight further back, we changed the weight when entering the corner and we improved, but with the medium tire I have more difficulty stopping the bikeit skids more. Acceleration and grip are not bad, but I struggle to stop it; with the soft it is easier. We need to improve this aspect, because if you arrive late and accelerate a bit more leaning you wear out the tyres, but we are working on it“, concluded Espargarò.