After the long break, we were all wondering whether we could be competitive at Jerez too \u2014 a track where Aprilias have always struggled a bit.<\/p>\n
Friday went better than expected \u2014 third in pre-qualifying, straight through to Q2. On the soft some old problems came back, but there was still margin to work with. That was fine.<\/p>\n
Saturday was a bad day, and not through any fault of our own.<\/p>\n
Wet qualifying, fourth on the grid. Then the Sprint: at the start a tear-off got stuck under my bike. I released the clutch and the tyre spun on top of it \u2014 I lost I don’t know how many positions in a second. I was fighting back, recovering, then the rain came. I pitted a lap late, came back out on rain tyres, and crashed.<\/p>\n
There’s not much to say about situations like that. It happens. Not much you can do.<\/p>\n
Sunday is a different day, though.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t feeling great physically, I have to admit. Something that stayed with me all weekend and that I tried to manage without letting it get to me. But at the start something clicked \u2014 a great launch, I recovered two positions into the first corners, and found myself chasing Alex and Marc Marquez.<\/p>\n
In the early laps I tried to stay with them \u2014 I knew they were fast. On lap 2 Marc made a mistake at Turn 11 and I moved up to second. Alex was ahead, and in those fast, flowing sectors \u2014 three and four \u2014 he simply had more. I made a mistake at Turn 1 mid-race, he pulled away, and that’s when I knew the win wasn’t on today.<\/p>\n
I managed the rest of the race keeping Diggia behind me. Second place.<\/p>\n
That’s fine \u2014 Alex was just stronger today. I gave everything I had on a weekend where we struggled more than usual.<\/p>\n
I’m happy with how it went. And tomorrow there’s an important test. Back to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the long break, we were all wondering whether we could be competitive at Jerez too \u2014 a track where Aprilias have always struggled a bit. Friday went better than expected \u2014 third in pre-qualifying, straight through to Q2. On the soft some old problems came back, but there was still margin to work with. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-cup-2026"],"yoast_head":"\n