The Sepang weekend starts uphill for Aleix Espargarò. The hopes of winning the MotoGP title are fading at Aprilia.
Aleix Espargarò does not start the penultimate round of the World Championship in the best way MotoGP in Malaysia. 20th time in the combined standings, the afternoon rain spoils the hopes of lowering his reference and he will have to hope for a third free practice session in the dry. Conversely, he will have to go through Q1 and take the risk of not moving on to the next qualifying heat.
After the bad results of Motegi and Phillip Island, two zeros in both weekends, Aleix Espargarò was not very sweet towards Aprilia. In Japan, an engineer mistake ruined his race with the start from the pit lane, condemning him out of the points. In Australia he took a shy ninth place due to a problem with the electronic maps that did not allow him to accelerate as he would have liked. The world dream slowly fades away.
Aleix Espargarò and the criticisms of the Noale house
The Granollers rider has chased first place in the standings since his victory at Termas de Rio Hondo, but a series of unfortunate events, personal mistakes and technical mistakes have gradually dampened the hopes. On Friday in Sepang, a problem with the clutch forced him to crash and return to the pits FP1 to take the second bike, but an alarm signal on the dashboard signals an engine problem. “I followed the rest of the session from the garage, then it started raining. Today it is difficult to say anything“.
In last Sunday’s debrief Aleix Espargarò he clearly stated that the team from Noale is not yet ready to aspire to the MotoGP title. “To some journalists I seemed too critical, today you can see my free practice. It is the way it is“. In the last three races he has managed to score only 12 points, in the second part of the championship he has embarked on a waning phase that he is unable to overturn, against a rapidly progressing Ducati GP22.
In the box Aprilia maximum collaboration between technicians and rider continues to reign, the goal is to repeat the performances of the first part of the championship in the 2023 season. Aleix has a two-year contract, another two years to try again to fulfill his great dream. “When I criticize it is because I want to put more pressure, because I feel they can do better. We weren’t at the same level in the last few races“.
