It seems fairly clear that most riders would not have taken what happened to Aleix Espargaro on the final lap of the Barcelona MotoGP race particularly well – but if you caught yourself thinking the Spaniard looked particularly inconsolable after his mishap, you’re not alone in feeling that way.
To recap, Espargaro had just defeated Jorge Martin in a duel for second place and was on course for what would’ve been a fifth successive podium – but got confused by the lap count on the Barcelona timing tower and started celebrating said podium finish a lap too early.
A second-place finish turned into fifth place as a result, and a 13-point deficit to championship leader Fabio Quartararo turned into 22 points.
Those nine squandered points could maybe decide the fate of the title, but MotoGP history from recent years suggest that is at the very least unlikely. Title fights rarely end up that close at the finish. Yet, arriving to the next round at the Sachsenring, Espargaro acknowledged he had really struggled to put the situation behind him.
It weighed on him heavily, he said, during the post-race Monday test, and it kept him from sleeping well. He took a Disneyland trip with his family to clear his mind.
And he made it clear at the Sachsenring that he had been caught out by just how hard the error had hit him.
“What happened in Barcelona for me, apart from the mistake, the reaction – my feelings after the mistake – it was something very strange,” Espargaro said. “It never happened before.
“I couldn’t sleep on Tuesday, I couldn’t sleep on Wednesday, I was angry during lunchtime with my wife [Laura] – I never, sincerely, felt like this.
“I don’t know why I felt like this. Because this season has been extremely good! Everything is fantastic in my life. But I don’t know.
“So I react like that, I decide to switch off everything, take the plane and go to Disneyland Paris.”
Espargaro said he didn’t know how he’d react to a bad mistake like that next time, but reiterated his feelings were something unprecedented.
“Sincerely it never happened in my life! Normally I did many mistakes. My career has not been a good one, it has been really strange and bad. I was slow for many, many years.
“But I was able to arrive at home and cycle, stay with my wife and relax. But this time was different. Very strange.”
The obvious explanation was pitched to Espargaro right away – that he was in a MotoGP title fight for the first time and the stakes were higher.
“It’s possible. The pressure that I am experiencing, the experience of this year, I’ve never had before,” replied the 32-year-old. “The feeling that I have is… how old is Fabio? 23? He can win 10 titles. I don’t think I can win titles at 40 years old.
“So, the opportunity that I have this year, I’m very focused to try to use it. So, maybe this is the reason, yeah.”
It’s easy to imagine an equally-heartbreaking scenario for Espargaro outside of the title race – if something like this happened while he was still chasing his first podium as an Aprilia rider, it would’ve probably been an even harder hit. Maybe – maybe not. After all, he does have the experience of falling off his Suzuki, a bike he never scored a podium on, while right in the thick of a podium battle.
Barcelona was also obviously deeply embarrassing. Falling off on lap one, for instance, would’ve been a much bigger points hit, but perversely may have been a lot easier to take.
But the title picture clearly plays a part. Espargaro seems very keenly aware that this may be his one and only chance at MotoGP immortality. His career hasn’t quite been “bad”, that’s way harsh – he stood on the podium as a Forward Yamaha rider! – but it’s clear he has never been in the position where any setback can hurt this much, especially against a bulletproof-seeming Quartararo.
Once seemingly fragile, Quartararo has moulded himself into something of a ‘mentality monster’, to borrow a phrase often used to describe the modern Liverpool football team. The Frenchman suffered two major disappointments in his title campaign last year, with the arm pump at Jerez and overalls malfunction at Barcelona, and he shrugged both off with no knock-on effects.
But Espargaro is made of stern stuff himself. It’s just a new situation for him – while Quartararo had the pain of 2020 to fall back on.
How well Espargaro adjusts to this new reality of his will certainly be a part of deciding the fate of the 2022 title. It might not be the main factor, given just how relentless Quartararo is, but if it stays close, Espargaro will need to be able to shrug things off quickly.
And, to be fair, so far at the Sachsenring it looks like he’s doing just that.
