Espargaro started from position 12 in Losail on Sunday, but was cautious on the first few laps as he had no experience with the behavior of the RC213V when the fuel tank was full.
He eventually began to work his way through the pack, finishing eighth after his Aprilia-mounted brother Aleix had a 0.056 second lead on the way to the finish line.
Espargaro says his front tire was “really damaged” when he found his brother on the track, but insists that being beaten by the Aprilia after being defeated by the Aprilia despite the amount of time he took is “not important” had lost steady starts, the race ended up just 5.9 seconds before victory.
“I recovered throughout the race and overtook the guys,” he said.
“I was 12th in the second lap and eighth. So I had to overtake the guys almost every lap.
“And when I got to Aleix I tried, but the tire was really damaged and the problem was that I usually hit the brakes, but then the front was very bad.
“Then I tried [pass] on the straight. If it had been half a lap longer, or a little longer in between, I would do it.
“But the problem was that I was late and got to 50 milliseconds [behind] .
“But I don’t think that’s important. What I think is important is that we arrived at 5.9am [from the win]We lose three seconds in the first and second laps.
“That’s good, I wanted to be more up front, but it’s good, the result is super interesting.
“Even if I was very bad at the beginning, we arrive at 5.9 o’clock [from first].
“So I’m angry with the result because it’s the eighth, it’s not nice, the points are not good. But in [picture] from the race, from the day it’s amazing. So I’ll try the next race. “
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Espargaro says he learned more about the Honda during the 20 lap race than he did during testing and practice in Qatar and firmly believes that with a strong qualifying performance, he can get better results.
“I think I learned more in this race than all the time I spent on the bike in testing or here over the race weekend,” he added.
“So the race was very important, I learned a lot. A lot of the problems I faced over the weekend have improved with the race.
“Well, I’m proud of the work we’ve done, but if we want to achieve our goal, which is fighting for the title, we can’t be eighth in the next race, we have to be a little higher.
“I know this will be difficult, but from what we get, we just need a better time attack on Saturday.
“It’s super important and if I can do it then I can stay in the front rows. I think we can do a good job.”