Aleix Espargaro: “Expectation was a bit too high at the beginning of the season”

Espargaro started the race in 12th, but like the sprint, he began to make significant progress early on before challenging Bagnaia for the lead following Marco Bezzecchi’s crash. 

A mid-race battle with Brad Binder and Maverick Vinales looked to have cost Espargaro the chance of fighting Bagnaia on several occasions, but each time the Spaniard responded and closed back in on the world champion.

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Speaking about his first win in over a year, Espargaro said: "I’m very happy to be back on top! Maybe at the beginning of the season the expectation was a bit too high on my side and the team. 

"I made too many mistakes and lost too many points. I’ve had good speed, many Fridays and in many sessions I was very close to Pecco but it doesn’t matter. 

"You have to be fast on Sunday. For one reason or another I was not able to match my speed with the results. 

"Obviously we don’t have the points that I think we deserve, but I was fast here on Friday, yesterday, unfortunately it was a wet race but I was quite happy about my performance. But today I was super convinced and knew that it would be an opportunity for me."

Although Espargaro waited until the final lap to attempt his, the Aprilia rider was in position to attack Bagnaia for much of the race.

But with the Ducati rider suffering with traction as the Grand Prix went on, Espargaro chose to overtake Bagnaia at turn 11 of the final lap.

"My plan was to overtake Pecco in turn three but in corner two when preparing the overtake I did a highside and I lost ground," added Espargaro. 

"Then I tried to recover the gap to him and in the last corner of last year’s circuit [layout] I saw that Pecco had a lot less traction than me. 

"I gained a lot of time there and I knew in the next one he would struggle more. I braked very, very late, went to the outside and I accelerated better than him."