The two riders started strong, but mechanical issues affected their end result. Spain's Aleix Espargaro had a gear change problem that affected him on every turn. Despite this problem, Espargaro held on to take tenth place at the Brickyard.
His French team mate, Randy de Puniet, was not so fortunate, he had to return to the garage after eight laps with a clutch issue. De Puniet was disappointed but recognized the uncommon nature of the problem, and will be back to top form at Brno next weekend.
Aleix Espargaro
"I was very focused on having a good race, because I had a lot of fun riding this weekend. I got a good start and was feeling comfortable, but at the midway point of the race I realised that the gearbox was starting to fail. Suddenly the bike went into a false neutral. I was still able to catch Valentino and tried to follow him on every corner, but when I hit the false neutral again I ran wide. I had to make up the time again every time. I stuck with Hernández after that, but it was hard to get past him with this issue. Despite everything, I was able to place tenth and got six points for my tally, so we have to be satisfied and look forward to next weekend."
Randy de Puniet
"I started strong, but Aleix and Yonny soon got past me. I then stuck behind them to study their riding. The race started to heat up, but I didn't want to take any risks. Two laps before the clutch broke, I felt something strange; in the first corner I found it impossible to change gear and lost nearly a second there. On the same lap, on the chicane before the straight, I could tell that something had stopped working correctly and again lost two seconds. The next lap went ok, but after that the clutch gave up on me. I am disappointed, because once again we have lost a lot of points, but now we have to look at the positives and continue to work hard ahead of Brno to recover those points."
Press release courtesy of Power Electronics Aspar.
His French team mate, Randy de Puniet, was not so fortunate, he had to return to the garage after eight laps with a clutch issue. De Puniet was disappointed but recognized the uncommon nature of the problem, and will be back to top form at Brno next weekend.
Aleix Espargaro
"I was very focused on having a good race, because I had a lot of fun riding this weekend. I got a good start and was feeling comfortable, but at the midway point of the race I realised that the gearbox was starting to fail. Suddenly the bike went into a false neutral. I was still able to catch Valentino and tried to follow him on every corner, but when I hit the false neutral again I ran wide. I had to make up the time again every time. I stuck with Hernández after that, but it was hard to get past him with this issue. Despite everything, I was able to place tenth and got six points for my tally, so we have to be satisfied and look forward to next weekend."
Randy de Puniet
"I started strong, but Aleix and Yonny soon got past me. I then stuck behind them to study their riding. The race started to heat up, but I didn't want to take any risks. Two laps before the clutch broke, I felt something strange; in the first corner I found it impossible to change gear and lost nearly a second there. On the same lap, on the chicane before the straight, I could tell that something had stopped working correctly and again lost two seconds. The next lap went ok, but after that the clutch gave up on me. I am disappointed, because once again we have lost a lot of points, but now we have to look at the positives and continue to work hard ahead of Brno to recover those points."
Press release courtesy of Power Electronics Aspar.
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