Keith Hopes For Espargaro’s Return to the Winning Streak

Following Aleix Espargaro’s dramatic early-finish misjudgement at the Catalan MotoGP, a mistake that left him in tears as he lost out on a home podium, former Grand Prix racer Keith Huewen feels it’s a fault the Aprilia rider will exploit in the future.

Espargaro, who had been on a four-race winning streak, the longest of any rider on the grid, appeared destined to make it five after another strong showing in Catalunya.

Espargaro, who was fastest for much of the weekend, was no match for defending world champion Fabio Quartararo, and it wasn’t the performance many expected.

Espargaro, on the other hand, was still on track for the kind of result he needed to put the Yamaha rider at bay in the championship.

After battling with Jorge Martin for the most of the race, Espargaro was successful in his attempts to pass his fellow Spaniard for the second position [turn one], before steadily pulling away from the Prima Pramac Ducati rider with three circuits to go.

However, when the last lap began, Espargaro was observed slowing down on the start-finish straight as Martin and Johann Zarco passed him.

While Espargaro was waving to the spectators, thinking he had P2, Joan Mir was the next to arrive, and Espargaro swiftly realised his mistake.

As soon as contact was made with Luca Marini, the Aprilia rider fought back to reclaim sixth at turn five; nonetheless, Espargaro would have been guaranteed second had he not committed such an expensive error.

Although MotoGP riders have three means of determining how many laps are left in a race, two of them are impossible to see.

The first is a rider’s pit board, but with MotoGP motorcycles travelling at speeds of well over 200 mph and many pit boards being deployed at the same time in most scenarios, determining which is yours and reading the information on it may be difficult.

The other is a rider’s dashboard, which, while perhaps the simplest choice for keeping track of remaining laps, isn’t necessarily that straightforward due to the technology on today’s MotoGP motorcycles.

So, how did Espargaro go about doing it? As Keith Huewen pointed out, Espargaro maintained track of the remaining laps via the circuit’s official tower, which shows rider information as well as race distance.

Espargaro’s next task will be to put the expensive error behind him and demonstrate that he is capable of continuing his championship defence.

Huewen is positive about Espargaro’s future performance and has high hopes that he will reach the position, he is destined to be.