The savior of Aprilia
It was supposed to be Marco Bezzecchi’s big day, but the crash of the rider from Rimini on the second lap of the Sprint, while he was leading, left Aprilia without its main spearhead. However, **Raul Fernandez** took care of bringing the Noale-based manufacturer to the podium – or rather ‘to the medals’ since it’s a short race – finishing an excellent **third ahead of brand mates Ai Ogura and Jorge Martin**. The 25-year-old from the Trackhouse team was unable to battle with Marc Marquez on track as he would have liked, but he had the satisfaction of completing an all-Spanish triplet behind Acosta and the reigning world champion.
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Fernandez flies low
“This is the first time I’ve been so close to Marquez – Fernandez commented to Sky Sport MotoGP microphones at the end of the Sprint – with Pedro [Acosta], Alex [Marquez] and Marco [Bezzecchi], I already battled last year and I know a bit more about how they drive. With Marc, however, no: I wanted to stay calm and understand how he drives. I don’t have everything under control yet – the Trackhouse representative then admitted – I’m still missing something and I’m not doing what I want 100%. There’s still a bit of work to do, but we’re using our heads a lot this year. We had a good pre-season and a good start to the weekend, but we have to stay calm. We know we can still improve, we have to stay calm. We are not title contenders – Fernandez then wanted to clarify – we are the ones who, when possible, are there“.
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To those who asked if he wasn’t ‘hiding’ too much, Fernandez replied with sincerity: “I don’t want to think about the title because I believe it’s not something realistic. Already finishing in the top-5 or top-7 in the World Championship standings would be an incredible result and that must be the target – he concluded – obviously if I can fight until the end I’ll try, but that’s not the real goal. The real goal is to learn, understand, continue doing what we did today. If then I were to have more to be able to fight with them… why not!”.
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