Aleix Espargaro’s French Grand Prix retirement left him frustrated “more than ever”, as Aprilia’s MotoGP reliability woes made an unwelcome return.
The sight of an Aprilia to the side of the track was a familiar one when it fielded its previous generation of bike – and it particularly irked Espargaro on several occasions – but the new RS-GP, in addition to bringing pace improvements, looked to have left that in the past.
However, after Espargaro and team-mate Lorenzo Savadori finished each of the first four races of the 2021 campaign, their bikes failed within a few laps of each other’s at Le Mans last weekend.
Espargaro was running sixth when his bike seemed to cut out on the straight, putting him out of the race.
“I’m very frustrated, more than ever,” he said, “because you know how difficult this weekend is in Le Mans.
En un finde difícil y saliendo en P14 estaba siendo una carrera muy buena, super remontada hasta la 6a posición hasta que se ha parado la moto… Así son las carreras! Seguimos @ApriliaOfficial ❤️💪 pic.twitter.com/fOrL2wP1QJ
— Aleix Espargaró (@AleixEspargaro) May 16, 2021
“I had a very tricky beginning of the weekend, yesterday [Saturday] we had a problem with one engine and I crashed also twice.
“We started P13, the race was flag-to-flag… but I’m very proud, sincerely, about my level, because in the dry I did a good start, I felt very, very strong on the dry.
“I couldn’t make any laps [in the dry in practice], but why wouldn’t I be fast if I have been in other circuits? So I started super, super convinced about myself, I felt very, very strong.
“We lost a big opportunity to leave Le Mans close to 50 points, which is a big and serious number” :: Aleix Espargaro
“And then when it started to rain I was very angry, I took the rain [set-up] bike, I lost many positions in the first lap but then I started, I don’t know why, to feel for the first time in many years very fast in the wet.
“And I started to overtake Valentino [Rossi], [Iker] Lecuona, [Danilo] Petrucci, my brother [Pol], many riders in just two laps.”
Espargaro was coy on the nature of the issue that ended his race, saying: “It’s not super important which was exactly the technical problem – it is for us, but for you guys it’s just a technical problem.”
As a result of the retirement, he stayed on 35 points and retained seventh place in the standings – with the riders behind him non-scoring or scoring poorly.
“Today we could finish quite easy in top-five, top-six. And it was very important, as many rivals from our zone did mistakes,” said Espargaro, who decided to undergo arm pump surgery on the Monday following the race in order to avoid problems at the demanding Mugello circuit.
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“So we lost a big opportunity to leave Le Mans close to 50 points, which is a big and serious number.”
Team-mate Savadori had starred in Q1, but had the early stages of his race compromised by contact with Alex Marquez at Garage Vert.
He was running 12th, just five seconds down on Espargaro and almost certainly on course for a career-best MotoGP finish, when his RS-GP began to smoke.
“Of course I’m not happy, but this is racing and we need to look forward to the next race,” said Savadori, adding that he was not aware of the nature of the issue.
“It’s a good weekend, apart form the race. In general, if we check race by race my gap reduced compared to my team-mate and the top of the other riders. This is my goal, I try to improve every race.
“Of course my adaptation to the bike, I’m not at 100% confidence with the bike, but in general still continuing to improve.
“I made more kilometres with this bike, this tyre and this category, and of course this helps understand better the situation.
“And also Aprilia helped me a lot to understand, also at home checking the data, everything – but in general I need to increase my performance and my growth in the next race.”
