MotoGP | Espargaro: “Maybe the commissioners were watching the Champions League”

Ninth place did not reflect Aleix Espargaro’s real potential at Le Mans. The Aprilia rider was honest, because he didn’t think he had a concrete chance of getting on the podium, but that he could at least keep the same pace as his boxmate Maverick Vinales, who in the end finished fifth under the checkered flag .

However, the Granollers driver’s race was ruined by a couple of episodes that caused discussion. In the early stages of the race there was almost contact with Enea Bastianini, which forced him to run wide on the run-off area of ​​turn 9, losing a couple of positions. Then he struggled to find the rhythm again, battling with Fabio Quartararo and Fabio Di Giannantonio, and in the final he suffered another blow from Franco Morbidelli, which dropped him to ninth place.

The thing that annoyed Aleix was that in both cases the commissioners decided not to intervene. Or rather, they did it in the case of Bastianini, but not by sanctioning the maneuver to his detriment, but rather by the fact that he in turn cut the chicane. Although he implied that he didn’t like it, the Spaniard tried to play down the situation by also making a joke about their actions.

“I wasn’t too bright today, but I wasn’t that bad either. I think my pace was good enough to finish in the top 5, to stay with Vinales, but Enea forced me to go wide when we were at high speed and fortunately there was it was the asphalt escape route. I don’t understand why they didn’t give him a penalty for the manoeuvre,” Espargaro said.

“Then I lost a lot of time behind Quartararo and Di Giannantonio. I passed them a couple of times, but they managed to pass me again. In the end I was also hit at the last chicane by Morbidelli and this also allowed Binder to pass me. Franco apologized after the checkered flag, but he too was not punished. Maybe the stewards were watching the Champions League or another sport (laughs). .

There was no real contact with Bastianini, but if he had not avoided it the consequences could have been serious according to Aleix: “Enea actually didn’t touch me, but I had to pick up the bike because we were at high speed. If If I had held the line, we would have had a bad accident: we were going very fast and then I saw the replay, he was very far away when he attacked me. But I had to pick up the bike even with Franco, because if I hadn’t done it I would have fallen “.

And it is here that he explained why in his opinion the commissioners are wrong with their assessments: “The feeling is that they only give penalties if one falls, but what they should penalize is the maneuver, not its consequences. I really struggle to understand” .

However, this time he preferred not to go to the Race Direction to clarify the situation: “I didn’t talk to them, but because it wouldn’t change anything. I don’t care. They saw the images and decided not to intervene. Even when we try to explain things nothing changes, so they do their job and I do mine. Let’s move on,” he concluded.