Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro was left in tears after mistakenly thinking he had finished the Catalan Grand Prix a lap too early.
In his home MotoGP, Espargaro had seemingly secured second place after holding off the challenge of Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin. To the horror of fans though, he prematurely slowed right down and started waving to the grandstands.
It cost him big time, as Jorge Martin, Johann Zarco, Joan Mir and Luca Marini all surged past him before Espargaro, 32, had realised his error. He did however, then manage to react and overtake Marini back, but missed out on a podium place by crossing the line in fifth.
Espargaro was visibly distraught afterwards, as team members sought to console the tearful star back in the pit box. It's a mistake that could prove pivotal, with race winner Fabio Quartararo extending his championship lead over him to 22 points. Without the Spaniard's blunder, the deficit would have stood at 13.
“The only thing that I can say is ‘excuse me’ to my team, say sorry to them," Espargaro told reporters afterwards. "It’s a mistake that, it’s not acceptable at this category. It’s completely my fault.
“My pitwall was too close to the first corner, it was the first one, so I had no time to watch the laps [counter], and the gap to Martin, I was pushing to the limit so I just watched the gap to Martin, +0.6, and then to watch the lap [count] I watched the [scoring] tower.
“And I saw L1, so I did one lap, and then I didn’t remember that here in Barcelona the last lap is number zero [L0], not one. So I closed the gas [throttle] on the straight.”
He also acknowledged that he dented his own championship hopes, and conceded he could ill-afford such misjudgment: “I’m very sorry for my team,” he continued.
“Because I know I don’t have the speed of Fabio to win [today], but if I want to beat him in the championship I cannot do these mistakes. Today I lost nine points, so I’m very sorry.”
On Twitter, there was much sympathy for the former Team Suzuki man. MotoGP journalist Simon Patterson wrote: "If you ever, ever, ever for a second doubt how much energy Aleix Espargaro puts into what he does... it's all on display in the Aprilia box right now. Heartbreaking."
@Ilhamuhammaad added: "It seems like MotoGP already has to use team radio, so that an incident like Aleix Espargaro doesn't happen again. Just imagine him fighting for the championship, but waste points and podium with a blunder like that."
It proved a frustrating day for the home supporters, after the early stages of the race had been marred by a dramatic first lap crash on Turn Two. Another home rider, Alex Rins, had his race ended following an incident involving Takaaki Nakagami and Francesco Bagnaia.
