168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Aleix Espargaro came within 0.052s of completing a dream home MotoGP farewell ✅in Catalunya with a💮 podium 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 Sa꧃turday Spr♕int.

But Sunday's full-length grand prix, on the medium rather than soꦅft rear tyre, proved a much tougher challenge.

Dro🔴pping from pole to sixth in the early stages, Espargaro reclaimed ꦅground 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 the #41 dug deep and was close enough to cons🥀ider an all-or-nothing lunge in the final corners.

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

“I tried everything because Marc had no grip on the right corners. So I said to mys💮elf, ‘OK, if you are closer in 13 or 14, maybe you can go for the inside.

“But he protected the ins🌠ide and at the very last moment I decided not to do it.

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

But Espargaro iꦍnsisted he had no൲ regrets: “I fought like a lion all race.

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

♔“You saw the first three bikes [were Ducatis] on the podium today and the 🍸Aprilia was fourth. I tried everything but not enough.”

Espargaro finished 5.4s clear💮 of th⭕e next-best Aprilia of Raul Fernandez, on the 2023-spec bike in fifth.

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

But Espargaro admitted he could do no🐼thing about the pace of Ducati duo France🐼sco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, who finished ten seconds ahead.

“They beat my race time from last year ꦯby 20 seconds, which is crazy,” Espar𝓰garo said.

“[Ducati⛄] chose this track for testing and they improved a 𒁏lot.

“They found something in the tyre saving. They found something fo🎉r sure with the medium tyre. This is why testing is very, very, very important.

“The result here last year was a 1-2 for the Aprilias. This year they [Ducati] chose B🌸arcelona [as a tes♊t track]. We didn't… 1-2 for Ducatis.”

Although Espargaro intends to switc🦄h to test and wild-card duties for 2025, he surprised by revealing it probably won’t be for Apr🌜ilia…