Calmer after throwing away a podium at the Catalunya GP, the Aprilia driver laughed at his own misfortune and admitted that he felt embarrassed to have greeted the Barcelona crowd a lap before the end of the race
Aleix Espargaró can now laugh at his own embarrassment after throwing away a second place finish at the Catalunya MotoGP GP. The Aprilia rider admitted that he "embarrassed himself" in his home race and was "greeting [the crowd] like an idiot" with one lap to go.
Last Sunday, Aleix battled to take second place in the race from Jorge Martín, and when the position seemed to be consolidated, he mistook the lap count and started to greet the crowd one lap before the flag. When he realized his mistake, the elder Espargaró picked up the pace again, but only managed to finish fifth.
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With the result, Aleix retained his second place in the World Championship, but now 22 points behind Fabio Quartararo in the MotoGP standings.
"I don't know if it was because it was my home GP and I was very focused, but I didn't see the sign they put for us at 350 km/h with all the information and I missed the podium," he continued.
"Today I will try to stay more focused and not leave before the end of the program," he joked.
The Aprilia rider mentioned that, in 16 seasons in the World Motorcycle Championship, he had never experienced anything similar and felt very embarrassed.
"I'm 32 years old and I've been in the World Championship for 16 seasons. I've crashed, I've been injured, I've had engine failure, but something like this had never happened to me before. I felt very bad, because I would have finished second in front of my people and I was saluting like an idiot when there was one lap to go... I started to cry and I felt very bad, I was very embarrassed," he assumed. "These are mistakes, we are human, these are things that can happen, but when it happens it gives you a lot of anger. But we have to laugh about these things," he joked.
Watching the images from Barcelona, Aleix admitted that it was hard to find consolation at that moment. And not even the presence of his children, little Max and Mia, could ease the pain of that moment.
"We have a human team around me that is brutal, but there not even my twins, who were in the pits, my little ones, could console me. Neither did anyone else. It was a sea of tears," he closed.
MotoGP returns to the track on June 19 for the German GP at Sachsenring, the tenth round of the 2022 season.GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.