Aleix Espargaro: I fought like a lion, but Marc is Marc!

Aleix Espargaro came within 0.052s of completing a dream home MotoGP farewell in Catalunya with a podium finish on Sunday.

After announcing his retirement at the end of this season, the Aprilia star promptly topped practice, took pole position and won the Saturday Sprint.

But Sunday's full-length grand prix, on the medium rather than soft rear tyre, proved a much tougher challenge.

Dropping from pole to sixth in the early stages, Espargaro reclaimed ground and inherited third when Pedro Acosta crashed out on lap 11 of 24.

A pass by Marc Marquez then stripped Espargaro of the podium with four laps remaining, but the #41 dug deep and was close enough to consider an all-or-nothing lunge in the final corners.

“With the soft tyre, I was a lot stronger. But today with the medium I never felt good,” Espargaro said. “At the end I tried my best to stay close to Marc, but I was just sliding, sliding, sliding.

“I tried everything because Marc had no grip on the right corners. So I said to myself, ‘OK, if you are closer in 13 or 14, maybe you can go for the inside.

“But he protected the inside and at the very last moment I decided not to do it.

“I could have made a big mess! And with Marc, in Catalunya, in a special weekend for me, I didn't want that. Fourth place is good enough.

But Espargaro insisted he had no regrets: “I fought like a lion all race.

“It was for a podium in my last race at home, so it was the moment to risk. So I tried everything. But Marc is Marc. No mistakes. And he secured his podium.

“You saw the first three bikes [were Ducatis] on the podium today and the Aprilia was fourth. I tried everything but not enough.”

Espargaro finished 5.4s clear of the next-best Aprilia of Raul Fernandez, on the 2023-spec bike in fifth.

Factory team-mate Maverick Vinales was a distant 12 seconds behind Espargaro in 12th.

But Espargaro admitted he could do nothing about the pace of Ducati duo Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, who finished ten seconds ahead.

“They beat my race time from last year by 20 seconds, which is crazy,” Espargaro said.

“[Ducati] chose this track for testing and they improved a lot.

“They found something in the tyre saving. They found something for sure with the medium tyre. This is why testing is very, very, very important.

“The result here last year was a 1-2 for the Aprilias. This year they [Ducati] chose Barcelona [as a test track]. We didn't… 1-2 for Ducatis.”

Although Espargaro intends to switch to test and wild-card duties for 2025, he surprised by revealing it probably won’t be for Aprilia…