“I’m sorry,” Aleix Espargaro apologizes to the home fans after a ‘school boy’ error at the Catalan GP

“I’m sorry,” Aleix Espargaro apologizes to the home fans after a ‘school boy’ error at the Catalan GP

Aleix Espargaro

Aleix Espargaro had a day to forget after his howler in his home Grand Prix. The Spaniard had set a blistering pace to secure pole in qualifying and looked set to win the Catalan GP. But he didn’t get to the best of starts as Fabio Quartararo got his elbows out and took the lead of the Grand Prix going into the first corner.

Then the reigning world champion didn’t look back as he went on to comfortably win the Grand Prix and extend his lead in the championship. While the Frenchman cruised along, the other two places on the podium were up for grabs with Aleix Espargaro, Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin in the mix. Aleix Espargaro had to fend off both the Ducatis if he wanted to keep the pressure on Fabio Quartararo in the championship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNk4skY07zI

Due to his superior straight line speed, Jorge Martin was able to get in front of Aleix Espargaro but the Spaniard fought back to regain his position and looked set to finish P2. That’s when disaster struck and we saw an error by Espargaro which shocked everyone. The Spaniard, thinking it was the last lap, stopped racing and lost out on the podium.

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Aleix Espargaro asks for forgiveness from the Spanish fans after his embarrassing mistake

Aleix Espargaro
Aleix Espargaro

This was a school boy and embarrassing error from a MotoGP rider at the grandest stages of them all. Aleix Espargaro after the race felt he had let the crowd down apologized to them. He said, “I’m sorry. That’s the only thing that I can say, sorry to my team. It’s completely my fault.”

“I was pushing to the limit so I just watched the gap with Martin, +0.6, then I watched the tower and I saw ‘L1’. So I did one more lap and I didn’t remember that here in Barcelona last lap is ‘0’ not ‘1’. And I closed the gas on the straight.”

“So I’m very sorry for my team because, I didn’t have the speed of Fabio to win, but if I want to beat him in the championship I cannot do these mistakes. Today I lost 9 [extra] points, so I’m very sorry,” as reported by crash.

Aleix Espargaro had driven a pretty solid race until that moment and would feel that he lost out on some crucial points. But he’ll have to put that behind him quickly if he wants to challenge Fabio Quartararo for the title.

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