I arrived at Aragon knowing it was going to be a tough track. Last year we struggled a lot here, and I had no reason to expect anything different. But no \u2014 I worked well together with all my guys and we were fast from Friday. Pole position with a new lap record, double podium in Sprint and race. A weekend I wasn’t expecting like this.<\/p>\n
That said \u2014 the knee is still giving me trouble, more than the shoulder at this point. It’s a nuisance, but I’m managing.<\/p>\n
Saturday, pole and Sprint. At Turn 1 I braked a little too early, my mistake, and Marc was ready to seize the moment \u2014 he always is. I found myself on the outside, with Alex taking advantage to slot in. I lost two positions in a second. Third. On the tyre: I was convinced by the soft, it had worked well all day, and I’m not sure the medium would have changed the result \u2014 if anything, it might have been worse.<\/p>\n
Sunday, starting from pole. Again Marc got me at the first braking point, but he stayed with the ride-height device engaged and I took the lead back. I led the first six laps, trying to build something. At the chicane Marc attacked \u2014 on the exit it looked like I had the advantage, but we ended up side by side on the straight at over 300 km\/h. Honestly I wanted to make life a little harder for him, and for Pedro too. But I lost both positions in a couple of seconds.<\/p>\n
On the straight we got close in a strange way \u2014 the aerodynamics were doing weird things, I kept coming closer to him even when I was trying to move away. Marc said at the microphones that in those moments you don’t think about your mother, you don’t think about the dog \u2014 you just think about who will brake later. He’s right.<\/p>\n
Third place. Same result as the Sprint, same podium. Marc had a perfect weekend \u2014 credit to him.<\/p>\n
It was an important weekend because I rode well, I enjoyed myself, and I realised that I can always be in the fight.<\/p>\n
Misano in a few days. Home, again.<\/p>\n
Can’t wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I arrived at Aragon knowing it was going to be a tough track. Last year we struggled a lot here, and I had no reason to expect anything different. But no \u2014 I worked well together with all my guys and we were fast from Friday. Pole position with a new lap record, double podium […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-cup-2026"],"yoast_head":"\n