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Aprilia MotoGP rider Aleix Espargaro admits he “just wants this season to finish” after younger brother Pol injured himself again at Aragon.
Both Espargaro brothers have missed races through injury this year, but Pol will be skipping his fourth event of 2018 on Sunday after fracturing his collarbone for the second time in a practice crash on Saturday morning.
Aleix qualified 15th at Aragon, where he finished a strong sixth last year, although grid penalties for both Maverick Vinales and Franco Morbidelli promote him to 13th on the grid.
The elder Espargaro – who is 18th in the standings – admitted he is looking forward to being able to put a difficult 2018 campaign behind him.
“I was with [Pol] and he’s very sad, because it’s been a very difficult season for both of us,” said Aleix.
“Just trying to not think so much, I really want that this season to finish because I’m not enjoying anything, on myself.
“Also my brother is having a lot of injuries, so I just want that this season finish in the best way. He will be operated today [Saturday] in the afternoon and he will be back in Thailand.”
Espargaro revealed on Thursday that he had spent some time on the 2017-spec RS-GP in a post-race private test at Misano last week, and was “disappointed” to have been “very fast” on the older model.
The Spaniard added after qualifying that he had pushed to have one of the older-spec machines available at Aragon.
“It’s difficult to stop the bike, and when I release the front brake, I cannot make the bike turn, I have to smash the front brake all the time and then accelerate because if not the bike doesn’t transfer,” he explained.
“And the engine last year was a little bit stronger on this track, I lose a little bit less to the others, but we are losing almost 10km/h in speed, so it’s also not helping.”