JABAR EKSPRES – Aprilia Racing rider Aleix Espargaro revealed that the foot injury he was still suffering made him not perform optimally in the Italian MotoGP race, last weekend.
“Unfortunately, this weekend we were not able to give the performance we expected. Injury is not a (main) reason. In yesterday’s race, the injury didn’t really hamper me, we also had a slight lack of speed,” Espargaro said, quoted from an official statement received on Wednesday.
Espargaro failed to win the top five positions in the race at Mugello by only finishing narrowly in sixth position with the RS-GP motorbike he rode aggressively against his closest rivals such as Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) and Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46).
With that result, he earned 10 points and is perched in 10th place in the standings for riders this season. Espargaro said his immediate priority at the moment is to fully recover from the physical injury to his right leg before the next MotoGP rounds in Germany and the Netherlands.
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In addition, his teammate Maverick Vinales has not been able to solve the problem of his performance over the weekend. He started the race from 12th position and only managed to finish in 12th position.
With low confidence in his tire choice, especially the front tire and grip hampering Vinales on the track, it hampered him so much that he was only able to maintain his position on the final lap of the Italian MotoGP.
“It was a difficult weekend and day. I was never able to achieve enough grip, especially at the front, and it was even very difficult to stay on the bike. During the race, I started to lose grip very early in the second lap and I was only able to regain control during the final lap. We will really need to analyze the data to find out what happened,” he said.
