Espargaro and Aprilia seem to have suffered more from the competition on the bumps present on the Austin asphalt, with the Spaniard finding himself in 19th place on the grid after being incapacitated in an accident even in qualifying.
The troubles of the driver of the Noale manufacturer continued on Sunday as well, with his race that ended during the ninth of the twenty laps scheduled, due to a crash at turn 13.
This was even his fifth accident in three days in Texas, which infuriated Aleix, who believes the RS-GP shouldn’t have suffered so much from the bumpy surface of the Circuit of the Americas compared to the competition.
“I’m very frustrated, it was a frank nightmare,” said Espargaro after what was his fourth retirement in 2021. “Actually, my frustration is a lot because I don’t have a clear answer. Obviously the bumps didn’t help. my bike was very difficult to ride, but the bumps were there for everyone. “
“So, you can go more or less fast on one circuit rather than another. I finished the Misano tests in front of everyone, but it can happen to be eighth somewhere else, for example. The level, however, is always higher or higher. less similar. On this track, on the other hand, I never found the way “.
Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“I wasn’t even pushing too hard in the race, because the goal was to get to the end, take home a couple of points and go home. I started making several overtakes: I passed Morbidelli, Lecuona, Dovizioso and Alex Marquez.” .
“But my pace was not good, I was losing about a second from the guys in the lead, maybe even more, but I crashed again. I have no explanation, I am very sorry for my team, because five crashes are a lot”.
“And having only one Aprilia in America, seeing her crash five times and coming home without points is not good. So, I’m angry but we hope we can find an explanation. We can forget this weekend, because the season has been very good, but I have need an explanation “.
As Aleix said, his was the only Aprilia on the track during the US trip, as his teammate Maverick Vinales decided not to take to the track, still being too shaken by the tragic death of his 15-year-old cousin Dean Berta, which took place the previous weekend in Jerez during the Supersport 300 race.