Aleix Espargaro: Over the limit, proud, nothing more I could do

With team-mate Maverick Vinales crossing the line 13th, the Red Bull Ring proved to be the RS-GP’s worst race since COTA in April.

But despite Quartararo – who finished second to Francesco Bagnaia - rebuilding his title lead to over one race win, Espargaro was proud of his performance.

After struggling to keep pace with Quartararo and the leading Ducatis all weekend, Espargaro overcame a bad start - due to a front holeshot issue - to fight his way from twelfth to fifth.

However, Espargaro was the only rider in the final top eight to use the soft rear tyre and - after being just one place behind Quartararo at the midway stage - dropped back to seventh, until Jorge Martin’s last-lap fall.

“I know we lost ground in the championship but I'm very happy, very satisfied about my performance today,” said Espargaro, who had Brad Binder and Alex Rins in his wheel-tracks as he crossed the line. “As a rider, there was nothing more I could do.

“I was riding over the limit every corner. I made zero mistakes. So sincerely I’m very proud about the race we did. Then I destroyed the tyre obviously and I had a lot of spinning on the straights, so it was difficult to manage and I lost the spots with Marini and Zarco.

“Sincerely, it’s a shame that Pecco and Fabio finished 1-2, but on my side, with this bike here today, I’m happy.”

Espargaro: 'I braked like an animal all race'

The Red Bull Ring’s hard acceleration and braking meant a return for the stiffer, heat-resistant, Michelin rear tyre construction last seen at Mandalika.

It didn’t help the RS-GP’s performance, but the stop-go layout for the first part of the track was Espargaro’s main issue.

“I don’t think that with the other carcass I would perform a lot better here,” Espargaro admitted. “Definitely a little bit better, yes, because on the centre of the tyre I didn’t have any traction because this carcass is too hard for us.

“But it's more about the layout. On the second and third part of the circuit, especially the last part. The bike was extremely fast, but on the first part of the circuit there was nothing I could do!

“We tried everything. Moving the engine [position] quite a lot during the weekend. Making the bike longer, a lot lower. But this bike doesn't like the apex [here]!

"I braked like an animal all race, sincerely, I don't know why I didn't make any mistake. But if you rush the entry of the corner, you accelerate with more lean angle than them and you destroy the tyre and this is what happened.”

Turning to the holeshot device problem, which saw Espargaro repeating pumping the front of his bike up and down on the grid to try and make it engage, he said:

“We had some problems with the system during this weekend. Nothing happened during the whole season but I had a problem on Friday or Saturday, and again today.

“We are trying many things, developing many things. Heights, different systems, so unfortunately it didn't work today and at the end I was lucky because I did a very, very good first two laps, I overtook a lot of riders.”

Espargaro is also predicting a tough weekend next time out at Misano, before returning to circuits more suited to the RS-GP.

“Now let's focus on Misano. Which is also a very tight track, is not going to be easy. So let's try to survive there. And then we're going to go to Aragon and to many tracks where I think that my bike will be better.”

Bagnaia, winner of the last three races, is now just 12 points behind Espargaro in the world championship.