Espargaro's Story Waits For Bagnaia To Make A Mistake In Race

Aleix Espargaro (Instagram @aleixespargaro)

JAKARTA - Aleix Espargaro studied his competitors well. He has a strategy to win, including during a duel with Francesco Bagnaia who made the last mistake of Sprint at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, Saturday (25/5).

Despite starting from pole, the 34-year-old racer was unable to lead the 12-lap race until he was finally in second place on lap eight when the previous race leaders Raul Fernandez and Brad Binder fell.

Since then, Espargaro has continued to maintain his pace to keep his distance from Bagnaia, who led the race until finally the Italian racer made a mistake because he fell at the last five laps which made him win the second Sprint victory in Catalunya in a row.

"I can't be closer to Pecco (Bagnaia) because I have a problem. I decided to stay behind him and not far from him," Espargaro said on the official MotoGP website, reported by ANTARA, Sunday, May 26.

"My goal is to stay close to keeping my pace very high and force him to make a mistake and eventually he makes a mistake," he added.

Espargaro, who decided to retire from MotoGP at the end of the season, will complete the Catalunya MotoGP series so far with a happy achievement, by becoming the fastest in practice, free practice 2 (FP2), qualification, and Sprint.

However, according to him, the achievement of the Sprint champion was 'not easy' because the speed was still unable to overtake the riders in front of him in the early laps.

"Unfortunately it wasn't easy because at first I felt the speed was too high. I saw everyone slip up at the border," he said.

"So I said to myself in the first four five laps after the start of 'you won't be able to overtake because it's impossible, they're very fast, so relax for four five laps'," he continued.

This score earned him 12 points which made his points in the standings 63 points in eighth position.

Espargaro said the Sprint champion he celebrated with his team was a dream Saturday before he would start again in a longer race with 24 laps on Sunday at 19.00 WIB later.