‘I was quite annoyed because I had a lot more pace than them’ – Aleix Espargaro

Aleix Espargaro was held back behind Marc Marquez and Jack Miller for much of the Spain Grand Prix, before taking them to third place.

‘I worked hard but it was a frustrating race. Where else we have to work is on the clutch. This season the race starts have been disastrous. This sunday I lost a lot of positions, I still managed to overtake [Takaaki] Nakagami but then it was impossible to overtake Marc [Marquez] and Jack [Miller]. I was quite annoyed because I had a lot more pace but they braked too late and held me back in the middle of the corners, in fact I couldn’t be fast in the corners’, the Aprilia catalan told the post-race press conference, before continuing:

– I saw Pecco [Bagnaia] and Fabio [Quartararo] escape but it was impossible for me to overtake. If he tried he would collide with Marc and crash, that was guaranteed because he crashes too late. So I saw that it wasn’t the day to fight for victory and I could only wait. I saw that they were going wider and wider in the corners towards the end and I knew they were going to make a mistake. When I was overtaking Jack I saw that Marc was going wide so I overtook them both. I think there were five laps to go and then I was half a second faster on the next three laps and got a good pace. Today these two [Pecco and Quartararo] were very strong but today I saw that I was close. In the future I will be able to be closer to them, I don’t know if I will be able to fight for victory with them, but I will walk closer.