Aleix Espargaro was aware that the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi could be difficult for him, and so it was. While Maverick Vinales found better sensations, as in Indonesia and Misano – even managing to line up on the front row -, his teammate started off on the wrong foot since Friday and was unable to turn the situation around.
The Spanish rider only managed to finish 15th in qualifying, missing out on passage to Q1 as the third Aprilia rider behind Raul Fernandez, third, and ahead of Lorenzo Savadori, replacing Miguel Oliveira on the Trackhouse RS-GP. Starting so far back compromised his performance: in the Sprint he tried to catch up, but the pressure and temperature of the front tire increased and he ended up on the ground. In the long race, things went a little better for him and he was able to finish in ninth place, as the best of the Noale manufacturer’s riders after Vinales’ crash.
The number 41 suffered once again: he finished thirty seconds behind the winner and ten seconds behind the riders who preceded him, the Ducati riders of the Pertamina Enduro VR46, and was weighed down by the lack of grip. Espargaro cannot understand the decline of the RS-GP, which could be due more than anything to the way in which the other riders have raised their level, something which is particularly evident in the comparison with the Desmosedici GP.
“It went really badly,” Aleix began, resigned. “It’s very difficult to understand and accept. To understand, because it’s incredible how you can have so little grip. It seems like we use other tyres, another asphalt… It was surreal when Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio passed me. It was It’s difficult to understand why the bike has so little grip.”
In fact, the bad condition of the bike also affected him physically, and he risked not finishing the race due to the fuel: “I struggled a lot. I’m exhausted and the bike doesn’t turn at all, nothing, nothing, nothing. Because due to the lack of grip, I skidded throughout the race. I reached the finish line by accident, barely out of fuel, because I was running with all the alarms on. So that’s all.”
When asked if the bike has worsened, Espargaro replied that it is difficult to say: “I don’t know if the bike has worsened here compared to the rest of the season. I would like to know. I try to interpret it, we do analyzes with the team, with the engineers… But I can’t understand if the bike has gotten worse, or if the others have improved a lot. And we haven’t managed to improve, or we’ve gotten a little worse. It’s really difficult to measure.”
And it is here that the spectacular level of the Borgo Panigale riders emerges: “Now I have a lot more spinning, but because now you have to go much faster than before. The times are torn up, the races become ten or twelve seconds faster. This is because those who do, and they are always the Ducatis, are able to have much more grip. In motorcycling there is only one way to go fast, and that is to have grip , they are able to have this extra grip, while we are not”, he explained in conclusion.
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