The disappointment of the Qatar MotoGP for Aprilia and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Aleix Espargaro has been likened to “a blunt knife”.

Espargaro, at one of his favourite tracks, enjoyed a roaring conclusion to the Saturday sprint race, earning a poꦺdium finish, and was the favourite to win Sunday𒆙’s grand prix with many inside the paddock, as a result.

But a disappoin🐼ting outing resulted in a P8 finish, blamed o⛎n poor rear grip.

“Weird,” was how TNT Sport🌸s’ Michael Laverty summed up Es🐠pargaro’s race.

“Something strange happened,” he added.

“He never had any fight from the off. He was getting beaten up, ove🀅rtaken, on the first two or three laps𝕴.

“T🔯hen we♊ expected, when he was only 3.84s off the lead, that it’s going to kick into gear for him. The grip will come to Aleix.

“But it never happened 🦂and he dropped further behind.

“It may have been the cooler track temperature or everyone else juꦐst figuring things out overnight.

“But it did seem like Aprilia were a blunt knife.

“They should have been the package whi♔ch fought the Ducatis, but they just di🗹dn’t have it.”

Espargaro, the oldest rider on the 2024 MotoGP grid at 34, admitted🍌 that he woke up on Sunday morning expecting he could w✅in in Qatar.

But he admitted to the quick realisation ꦉꦉthat he was “extremely slow” in the race eventually won by Francesco Bagnaia.

"♛Already on the warm-up lap to the grid I felt that I had no grip at all. Something went wrong with the rear tyre.

“We have to try to 🌃understand what happened with Michelin and the team.

"Obviously with the pace we showed in the las🦩t part of the Sprint I was aiming for a completely different race.

"But there was nothing I could do. It wa💧s a nightmare all race."

He later added: “I'm a little 💙bit angry because we lost a good opportunity.

"In any case, I am still leaving Qatar knowing that I have a competitive bike and the champ⭕ionship has only just begun."

Aprilia entered the season-opener tipped to be Ducati’s closest challenger but, after a biza💛rre Sunday, it never came to fruition.

KTM’s Brad Binder was instead the so🃏le non-Ducati in the top seven.