Gearbox woes cost Espargaro dearly in Aragon

Pol Espargaro may have finished ninth on Sunday but his Aragon Grand Prix was a positive step in the right direction. The Spaniard, who had a strong qualifying session and ran in at the front of the second group during the race, however a gearbox problem made him run off track. The time lost cost him dearly and pushed him to the back of the group and ultimately he couldn’t make up the lost ground.

“We started well and I was behind Valentino,” said Espargaro. “I felt okay, stayed relaxed, just taking my pace and made a gap to Dovi. Then neutrals started to come in the gearbox. I went wide. I tried to recover but I don’t know how and why, I lose the rubber that is on the gear pedal. Then my foot was slippery during the downshifts into the corners. So it was a complete disaster.

“Five seconds we lost with these neutrals problems, and plus this problem with the foot I lose around six seconds in one lap. I made a big effort and got back to the group in front including my brother and Dovi. I’d recovered a lot of time but I’d over-pushed, it was late in the race, I was spinning like crazy and I was not able to overtake.

“I tried on the last lap, but I was too weak and I couldn’t overtake Bradley. You know it’s an unlucky season and when we can do something good, I mean today fifth was our position, we have gearing problems. Also we broke one gearbox in the last race, we broke the engine in the last race also… Luck is not on our side this year. We are just fighting, fighting but not lucky.”