The view is clearly in favor of Aleix Espargaro with the latest results, especially the last race in Aragón where he returned to the podium after three months and Fabio Quartararo’s zero allowed him to reduce many points from the leader and reach 17 points in the last five career remaining.
“The podium was good, it gave me motivation and I was satisfied with my performance. I was sixth in a difficult circuit and after a weekend in Aragón with two crashes and staying out of Q2 was not easy to manage and getting the podium was incredible,” he recalled.
Asked if the Aprilia’s weak point which is braking after the straight is a concern this weekend the man from Granollers emphasized that “in the Misano test, we improved quite a bit in that aspect, and it really has to do with the grip of the track. It also depends on the rear tire we have. So I’m not too Worried. We haven’t raced here at Motegi for a long time, but it’s a track I like and anything can happen. It doesn’t look like the weather will be good, so we’ll try to adapt to these conditions as much as possible . The program will be different because we won’t have Free Practice 1 in the morning, so it will be a different, tough weekend.”
That both Bagnaia and Quartararo had only ridden big bikes once at Motegi and he was more expert it says that it is not very important or a plus in favor: “It doesn’t count much. I saw the 2019 race and Fabio’s was very good, one second behind Marc in his rookie year. They also competed in lower categories. We also have a new shell and new elements on the bike so I think it will be quite new for everyone.
In the traditional question to the Aprilia man if he felt pressure because it was the first time the title was played for, he said “I have to say that, say, in the middle of the season, when I started to get on the podium in all the races, I started to feel a certain pressure because I realized that I have several chances to fight for this title until the end. But now I’m a bit more relaxed, I’m enjoying this year a lot – with the my family when I’m not competing, as well as when I’m competing – every minute of this year, I’ll never forget it in my life, so I’m relaxed. I know I’ll have a chance, so I’m just trying to do like I’ve done since Qatar: don’t make mistakes, have fun and relax.”
“It will be nice, a little chaos is more fun. The last pre-event here was fun, but yes, MotoGP is MotoGP, anything can happen, we saw it with Fabio’s crash on the first lap at Aragon for example. He was leading the Championship, always fighting in Aragón, and then he had a very strong pace and then he crashed in the race. So whatever can happen, you have to be relaxed, try to manage everything in the most positive way possible, and we’ll see how it goes. this weekend because we have to deal with a lot of new stuff and we haven’t raced in Japan in a long time, different calendar, weird weather conditions, so it’s going to be fun.”
Yin the huddle with the Spanish press featured Aleix that “very patient and regular, but the time will come” that he also has to take risks if he wants to win. “There are 125 points left, which is still a lot, and you can’t change your style of play now, because it got me this far, although with 50 left we have to go on the attack, but now we have to continue the same way,” he explained.
Espargaró did not pay special attention to the characteristics of the circuit because he said that “this circuit is quite…, look how fast Fabio ran in Austria, it is the most suitable for the tires, the one that is best suited to The circumstances, Motegi is a strange circuit, it is raining, so on Sunday the choice of the rear tire is almost blind, and that makes the tires make more of a difference than anything better or worse bike.very tactical week indeed.
About the bikes he explained: “I don’t see a weak point in the red -Ducati-; the Yamaha is, in my opinion, the worst machine of the three, but Fabio has found a lot of consistency and a lot of cornering and a lot also agility and this is something I did not remember from Yamaha, a lot of agility in changes of direction, Fabio I think is the best in changes of direction, and Aprilia is neither the best nor the worst in any thing, it is a motorcycle with good stability under braking in fast corners, it turns well, maybe better than the Ducati, the engine is worse than the Ducati and better than the Yamaha, it’s somewhere in the middle, but the bike to beat now is the Ducati I think it’s the best bike so far.”
Bastianini’s management of Ducati, key
“A month ago, we all said that Ducati had an army of soldiers against Fabio or me, and now it seems that the enemy is in the house of Ducati, so let’s see how they manage it, because in the end let’s not fool ourselves, Enea has its chances of being champion, and that has to be managed, someone has to manage it from above. We’ll see how they do it, although in the end I think Fabio is the has the most losses, he is the leader and he is the world champion”, insisted the Aprilia rider.
A Fabio Quartararo in this part of the season, he said he has not seen him “touched, but he does have to feel the pressure”, as his rivals are closing in and (Quartararo) has “the feeling that he has the worst bike of the three , he felt that; the championship will be fun.”
The one from Granollers saw his regularity as one of the keys to the success of the Aprilia-Espargaró binomial. “In fact, Austria was one of the weekends I was most proud of coming home and I finished sixth there, but I left a lot of pride, because it was a complicated Grand Prix, I wasn’t comfortable, I did a wonderful -amazing racing effort and number of days. Because Pecco has 300 career wins and he’s in my points. The hard days, where you have to learn how to accept that something happens to you and that day you can’t beat him and you have to be fifth or sixth. I have also done two rooms. And those in front, when they cannot accept that, fall”.
“In Misano I want to say that it’s not the bike that doesn’t work, it’s me that doesn’t work in Misano, and that’s how it was shown, because Maverick made the podium and I didn’t. That circuit has always cost me a lot and I don’t understand how to go fast there and what I mean about the circuits, is that the bikes now work well everywhere and yes, in Australia the bike is higher than what we have here, but the difference is not big”, he explained about his disappointments in the second race of the Italian.
For the rest of the season, Aleix Espargaró said he believes he will be fast on all circuits. “Probably the one I had a little more doubts about was Thailand and I’m not sure why. There were two very long straights there and the Ducati was a missile. Le Mans gave me some massive doubts and I managed to get ahead. of Fabio, who was all the race behind me and he couldn’t catch me. You never know what can happen.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
