Espargaró’s remarkable recovery culminated in a memorable double pass over Brad Binder and Jack Miller on the last corner of the race.
The Aprilia rider crossed the line just 2.5 seconds behind the winner of the Ducati race, Francesco Bagnaia, although he lost more than 11 seconds when he was forced to leave the track due to the impact. of Quartararo’s motorcycle.
The lap 5 incident, which Quartararo called a “stupid mistake” and then sanctioned, saw the reigning champion shoot a pass to Espargaro to reach second place, losing the front of his Yamaha and turning sideways to the RS-GP.
Espargaro set the fastest lap of the race during his load on the field, finishing directly behind his teammate Maverick Vinales and a place on the podium. Quartararo, meanwhile, suffered a second accident and retired for the first time this season.
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All of this meant Espargaro came close to 21 points behind Quartararo, a much bigger gain than he would have expected without the crash, but at the expense of what could have been his second victory in MotoGP and Aprilia.
“I think I was able to win today and Fabio finished second [without the incident]. That would mean a five-point gain. Instead, I recovered 13 points “, said Espargaró. “So if you think in terms of the championship, it’s better.
“But I lost a win. I’m pretty sure I could win today and I only have one win in my career. So I’d rather get five points back and have the win!”
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The Spaniard added: “Something I was missing in the last 4-5 races is to be the fastest on the track. And I think this weekend, except during the yellow flag classification, I was the fastest.
“I have shown my speed and that is very important to me. I didn’t win today because Fabio hit me, but I think the win was clear. It’s important for me to have that feeling. “
Espargaró: ‘Fabio is not a dirty rider’
Reflecting on the incident itself, Espargaro felt that Quartararo’s near-perfect form in recent times had led to the undervalued move.
“The reason Fabio made his move is because his feeling with the bike is very high at the moment. We also saw him on the first lap in Germany with Pecco. He’s not a dirty rider, but his confidence is so high that it is able to close the lines a lot.
“But today I was also super fast, so I was able to close the line like him and we collided. He said to me, “Sorry, because I made a big mistake in judging this advance.”
Espargaro added: “I am an old man in this paddock, so I like to analyze how things are going. I know the category, the bikes, my rivals. I know Fabio’s confidence and I also devoted a lot of time to analyzing him about videos, races, sessions, everything.
“I know how he is riding and his level of confidence is very high right now, but when you are at the moment, it is not so easy to maintain. Not to be mistaken.
“Today is not that he was arrogant, but because he feels much faster than the rest, he made a bad judgment about this advance and knew that this could happen.
“From that moment on I said to myself,‘ Fabio is almost perfect. He didn’t make a mistake during the season, so if he made a mistake now, you have to take advantage of it. “
Espargaró: “My bike was amazing”
From the moment he rejoined the track in 15th position, and despite a few drops of rain, Espargaro rolled with a mindset of nothing to lose.
“When Fabio hit me, I said, ‘Your career is over.’ Nothing will change if you score 2-3 points, it doesn’t matter. You have to get more than 10 points and if you crash, you crash .
“So I said to myself,‘ Today is the day you have to prove you’re fast and you have a good bike. ’And I proved it. I smiled when I saw the lap times; 32.5, 32.5. I said ‘what is this?’ It was amazing.
“I knew it was impossible for the others to go at this pace and I saw that he was taking the lead group. So he was also angry, but at the same time happy to keep up that pace.
“I never exceeded the limit because I didn’t make mistakes. I didn’t go wide anywhere. I’ve been fast but today’s bike has been fantastic. Incredibly good.
“In the last chicane I braked much later than everyone else and especially in the fast sector no one could drive the speed I could drive. That’s why it was pretty easy for me to get ahead. “
Asparagus: I took 20 km / h more cornering speed
Espargaró’s best overtake was without a doubt his last, when he stopped both Brad Binder and Jack Miller in the final whistle.
Binder made slight contact with Miller as the trio tightened around the corner and some post-race comments seemed to suggest that the Australian was not happy with Espargaro’s move.
“He wasn’t with me, in fact,” I told him [Jack] “It wasn’t that dirty.” He said “no, I wasn’t blaming you.” I blamed Brad, he hit me in the arm. ‘ I said okay! “Espargaro explained.
The 32-year-old revealed that the key to the move had been his cornering speed before the braking zone.
“The overtaking was in the last braking, but in reality the last was in the left corner. It was carrying 20k per hour more, the speed it was carrying was amazing. So it was just inertia that I put myself in the corner.
“I saw that Brad wasn’t very good with the brakes there and I said ‘Come in’ and I was able to stop the bike. I’m happy because it was very important for the points. I think all the overtaking I did during the race was there “.
‘Excellent’ first half of the championship
Espargaro completed the first 11 rounds with five podiums, including a win. That would easily have been seven podiums without the Barcelona accident and today’s Quartararo incident, or eight if the vibration of the front tires at the Sachsenring is included.
However, Espargaró’s 151 points have already surpassed his previous best GP of 126 points throughout the 2014 18-round campaign with Forward Yamaha.
Most significantly, while Quartararo enters the summer vacation just nine points below last year’s record at the same stage of the season, Espargaro has won 84 points and seven championship spots compared to a year ago. year.
“Fabio has the number 1 on his back because he is world champion, and after last weekend he had exactly the same points as last year when he won the title. And now I’m 21 points away from him, “Espargaró said.
“It means my level and the first part of the championship have been excellent.”
This 21-point difference will be further reduced at Silverstone, the scene of Espargaro’s first podium in the RS-GP and where Quartararo will now have to serve a long lap penalty early in the race.
This penalty usually cost about 4-6 positions, which could be especially painful for Quartararo, given the difficulty of the Yamaha to advance.