Aleix Espargaro’s scare at 165 and heroic reaction with a sixth
The Aprilia driver fell in FP4 and suffered a hard crash at turn 12 at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone
The story was about to end in the fight for the MotoGP title when Aleix Espargaró barely came out in FP4. The accident occurred at turn 12, with 24 minutes remaining for the end of the session, when the Catalan was going 165 per hour. Espargaro had to be transferred to the medical center, but he was able to enter on his own foot, limping.
While his rivals continued rolling, the uncertainty about Espargaro’s condition grew, only to later celebrate a victory that indicated the only things broken were a bruise at the calcaneal level of his right foot.
Despite the scare, Espargaro went back out to Q2 and heroically achieved a sixth place that tasted like gold, given the circumstances.
Espargaro had taken an important step forward in FP3, which he led with a significant margin over the French ‘Diablo’, Fabio Quartaro, whom he left 0.365 behind and with five drivers between them.
The Silverstone race looks just as interesting after practice as it was anticipated before it took place. Quartararo will have to serve the long lap penalty that he drags from Assen, which Aleix can take advantage of to overtake him, if his foot doesn’t get worse at night...
Fabio and Aleix will coincide on the second line with Italian Francesco Baganaia between them. The third has been left for Marco Bezzecchi, Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martín, while the fourth for Luca Marini, Alex Rins and Joan Mir. Those who did not pass Q1 were Álex Márquez 17th, Pol 19th and Fernández 22nd.
It is especially painful to see the result of the youngest of the Espargaró family, relegated to the seventh row when last year he won his first and only pole position as a Repsol Honda rider. His result in this official session at Silverstone is a reflection of the drama that Honda is experiencing at the moment, awaiting the reappearance of Márquez with his four bikes very far from the lead.