Fermin Aldeguer says he should have kept the door shut to prevent Marco Bezzecchi snatching victory from him on the last lap of the MotoGP sprint at Mandalika on Saturday.
The Gresini Ducati rider led the race from the start until Turn 10 on the final lap, when a charging Bezzecchi – who was recovering from a bad start on his Aprilia – forced his way through on the MotoGP rookie.
This was the first time that Aldeguer, the youngest rider in the field at 20 years of age, was in with a realistic chance of winning a MotoGP race. And the Murcian suggested afterwards that he learned a lesson for the next time he is in that situation.
“I tried to do the eighth and ninth corners fast, but I braked late in the 10th corner,” said Aldeguer. “He [Bezzecchi] did a block pass. Maybe if I closed the line a little bit, he [would not have been able to] do it.”
Aldeguer threatened to re-pass Bezzecchi’s Aprilia immediately after the move, but his 26-year-old countryman just had the pace to stay ahead.
“I tried at the chicane, but he defended the victory well. [It was] a short battle, but we lost first position.”
Bezzecchi admitted afterwards that the fightback briefly had him worried.
“In Turns 11 and 12, he put his wheel inside and [I was close to losing] the front,” said the sprint winner. “I expected him to pass me again, but I didn’t hear him. So I said, ‘OK, maybe he’s not there’. [So] I just [took my line] and it was good.”
Despite the disappointment of losing the lead so late, however, Aldeguer said he had to be satisfied with what was his best sprint result to date.
“We used Bezzecchi’s mistake at the start and in the first lap to try to open the maximum gap. When I saw I had two seconds to the rider behind with five laps to finish, I said, ‘Maybe I can win the race today’. I started to think a lot of things. But Bezzecchi was coming super fast. We knew, we knew.
“For sure, when I passed the chequered flag, I was a little bit destroyed… and sad. But when I saw all the team, all my people, happy after my race, if you look at the fight with Bez and [consider that] I led 12 laps, we have to be happy, to be honest. Because we knew Bez was one or two steps in front of me, on pace and on lap time.”
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