Aleix Espargaro on start swerve: “My fault, you can't do that”

Lining up in tenth place, at the head of row four, the factory Aprilia star veered to the right when the lights went out, forcing evasive action by Enea Bastianini and Fabio Quartararo alongside him.

Espargaro said he had been so focussed on trying a new clutch and launch system that he hadn’t even realised what he had done until seeing the TV images after the race.

“My mistake. I went too much on the right. We are trying a new clutch, new launch controls and I was super focused on the clutch and when I saw the images in the garage, I didn’t even realise that I did that,” Espargaro said.

“But my fault. You cannot do that. I was too much on the right and because my start was not good, actually it was shit, the riders behind me were a lot more fast than me, so I crossed their line. My fault.”

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Espargaro finished the opening lap in twelfth place and finished ninth, for the final point, but felt his chances had been wrecked by the yellow flags in qualifying.

“The race was shit. I'm very frustrated because in qualifying I had really good speed. I was aiming to fight for the pole and I had two yellow flags on the last two laps when the track was more dry,” he said.

“So starting from tenth with the worst launch control on the grid is almost impossible. The pace was not bad, I overtake many positions, but it's difficult when you start that far back.”

“We are working a lot [to improve the launch control]. We are trying different systems but it's always the same time from 0 to 100km/h and the race is done.

"Every weekend there are some bikes with a slower pace that beat us due to the start because [behind other riders] the front tyre pressure will go into the sky. So it's difficult to ride the bike.

"We are doing a really bad championship. All the Aprilias. I'm the first Aprilia almost every session in the last 3-4 races but always far from the positions that we have to be.”

RNF’s Miguel Oliveira was the next best Aprilia rider on Saturday, in 16th place.

Espargaro, riding with two fracture bones in his right heel from the Mugello cycling accident, is currently eighth in the world championship heading into this afternoon’s grand prix.