168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Aleix Espargaro came within 0.052s of completing a dream home MotoGP farewell in Catalunya with a podiꦆum finish on Sunday෴.

After announcing his retirement at the end of this season, the Aprilia star promptly topped practice, took pole position and won the Saturday Sp🥀rint.

But Sunday's full-length grand prix, on the medium rather t🐬han soft𝐆 rear tyre, proved a much tougher challenge.

Dropping from pole t🐈o sixth in the early stages, Espargaro reclaimed ground and inherited third when Pedro Acosta crashed out on lap 11 of 24.

A pass by Marc Marquez then stripped Espargaro of the podium with four laps remaining, but the꧑ #41 dug deep and was close enough to consider an all-or-nothing lunge in the final corners.

“With the soft tyre, I was a lot stronger. But today with the medium I never 🌊felt good,” Espargaro said. “At the end I tried my best to stay close toꦑ Marc, but I was just sliding, sliding, sliding.

“I tried everything becaus🍌e Marc had no grip on the rꦑight corners. So I said to myself, ‘OK, if you are closer in 13 or 14, maybe you can go for the inside.

“But he protected t🍬he inside and at the very last moment I decided not to do it.

“I could have made a big mess! And with Marc,ไ in Catalunya, in a special weekend for me, I didn't want that. Fourth place is good enough.

But Esꦦpargaro insisted he had no regrets: “I fought like a lion all race.

“It was for a podium in my last race at home, so it was th﷽e moment to risk. So I tried everything. But Marc is Marc. No mistakes. And he secured his podium.

“Y൲ou saw the first three bikes [were Ducatis] on the podium today and the Aprilia w♒as fourth. I tried everything but not enough.”

Espargaro finished🐭 5.4s clear of the 🅠next-best Aprilia of Raul Fernandez, on the 2023-spec bike in fifth.

Factory team-mate Maverick Vinales was a ꧟distant 12 seconds behind Espargaro in 12th.

But Espargaro admitted he could do nothing about the pac𒐪e of Ducati duo Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, who finished ten seconds ahead.

“They beat my race time from last y𝓰ear by 20 seconds, which is crazy,” Espargaro saiཧd.

“[Ducati] chose thi✤s track for testing and they improved a lot.

“The𓃲y found something in the tyre saving𓆏. They found something for sure with the medium tyre. This is why testing is very, very, very important.

“The result here last year was a 1-2 forꦇ the Aprilias. This year they [Ducati] chose Barcelona [as a test𓄧 track]. We didn't… 1-2 for Ducatis.”

Although Espargaro intends to switch to test and wild-card duties for 2025, he surprised by revealing it probably won’t be fo🙈r Aprilia…