Raul Fernandez was “crying like a baby” after crash from the lead
Raul Fernandez admits he was reduced to tears following his mistake from the lead of the Catalunya sprint.
Raul Fernandez built nearly a one second lead in the MotoGP sprint in Catalunya, before throwing it away at turn ten.
Yet to become a race winner in the premier class, Fernandez looked on course to change that before losing the front-end of his RS-GP23 machine.
A huge error that was repeated by Brad Binder and Francesco Bagnaia, Fernandez said: “Now I feel a little bit better but arriving at the box I was crying like a baby.
“I want to say sorry to the team because I made a very stupid mistake. I was super comfortable today and I felt like I had everything under control. I think the crash was a mistake.
“I was trying to compensate for the mistake in the previous corner, but in the end I enjoyed it. It is not what we want but we crashed when leading.
“So I think we are working so well and day-by-day I feel comfortable. Today I felt a big change on the bike and Aprilia is helping me so well.
“Yesterday was a really tough day and I didn’t feel comfortable with the bike. It was super difficult to manage.
“But today I felt like I could ride easy and I felt like I did when I was in Moto2. I made a mistake but I need to be focused on coming back and on tomorrow.
“I need to do the same for tomorrow and we have the pace. It was super easy. It was not like I crashed trying to do a lap record, but it was a mistake. I was calm on the bike and I feel super comfortable.”
Fernandez’s performance during qualifying and the sprint came as a surprise, not only because fighting at the front in MotoGP is not something he’s used to, but also because he struggled during Friday’s practice sessions.
But Fernandez had a clear response for why he jumped forward: “We worked a little bit on the set-up but the main thing was that we changed the electronics.
“I tried to change a bit my style for this type of track because it is not easy for me. But also, the big change was the electronics.
“Today I could ride like I wanted and I didn’t have to think about what I needed to do.”
While Fernandez made a huge mistake, the Trackhouse Racing rider was not the only one guilty of throwing the win away.
Binder and Bagnaia did the same but Fernandez did not want to use that as an excuse.
“I’m more happy about the pace than [sad] about the crash,” said Fernandez. “This is part of the game.
“We saw Pecco and Brad, who have a lot of experience and many victories; they have a lot of experience and he [Bagnaia] is the world champion and they crashed.
“It is not an excuse but it is the reality. It is not an easy category but we are on the right way.”
