Espargaro began t🦄he race from fourth on the grid, believing he had the speed to stick with favourites Fra꧂ncesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo.

But the Spaniard’s hopes of putting his Barcelona error behind him with a sixth podium of the season suffer🦂ed a major blow before the red lights had even gone out.

Having gone to the grid on a used front tyre, the Aprilia team th🤡en switched to the planned brand-new hard🌜 front for the race start.

But by turn one of the sighting lap, Es𒀰pargaro realised he was in trouble.

“From when I change♊d the front tyre on the grid and started on the formation lap, I started to feel a lot of vibration on the front,” he said. “I was very angry t𒆙hat I had no time obviously to stop and change the tyre.

“[The same thing] happened to more than seven riders on Friday. Also to Mir in qualifying. My tyres were always perf🐠ect [all weekend before the race] but today unbelievable. A lot of vibration, a lot of chattering.

“The first 6-7 laps with a new rear tyre I could man🙈age quite well, but then it was impossible. My best sector during the weekend was sector 3, the fast part of the track, and it was impossible for me to ride.

“It was a question of avoiding a crash all the time𝐆 and it was surpr✨ising because I was lapping very, very slow. But even like this, I was racing for the podium!”

Moto2 pace

After Bagnaia’s early exit, Espargaro settled into third 𒐪behind Quartararo and Johann Zarco, with Vinales just behind.

When Vinales retired, and despite running lap times close to ‘Moto2 pace’, Espargaro held off the challenge of Jack Miller for ten laps until a late mistake handed the fina🀅l rostrum position to the factory Ducati.

“The m♊istake on the brakes is my fault [not the front tyre] because I had this [tyre] problem from the grid and I did that corner 28 times before making the mistake,” Espargaro said.

“But it was very 🌳difficult to manage, very difficult. I closed the lines all the time, trying to brake straight and then accelerate instead of ma✱king corner speed, which is the strong point of the Aprilia.

“And you just have to analyse my pace. I was super slow. Some laps I was 1m 23 high which is just one se🧸cond faster than Augusto [Fernandez i🌳n Moto2].

“So very slow lap times and I'm happy sincerely to take 4th pla꧂ce because it's a lot of points for the championship, but today our potential was easily to fight for second place.”

Espargaro cited the tyre issue as “100%” clear, adding that Michelin is due to a🥂nalyse what happened.

“But it will not change anything to me. The r✤ace is done. But clearly no d🥃oubt the tyre was not okay. I used 4-5 different hard front tyres during the weekend perfectly.

“I went to the grid with a uꩵsed tyre of 16 laps, the bike was quite OK and then as soon as I put in the new tyre, I arrived at corner one and the bike started to vibrate. So there is no doubt.”

That also begs the question o♛f whether it would have been better to fit the new front tyre in the pits, meaning the issue would have been spotted before the sighting lap.

“All races [we change tyres on the grid], but even if I started with a new tyre from the garage and I fe🍃lt the vibration, there were no more [new] tyres. There are 💃four hard for all weekend, so I had no spare front.”

Enea Bastia🐈nini (te💎nth) was the only rider not to race the hard front.

Whilst fee꧙ling fortunate to salvage 13 points, which also strengthened his hold on second in the world championship over new nearest rivꦉal Zarco, Espargaro has slipped 34 points behind reigning champion Quartararo.

“Difficult. For me the problem is not the points, 34 points is not so much,” Espargaro said. “The ಞproblem i🌄s that he's always faster than me on Sunday.

“Today I think I could beat Zarco, if I had normal front tyre. The pace was there, But Fabio won easy. So the problem is that on🔥 Sunday he's faster than me. I need to find some speed.”

Maverick Vinales: Best race of the year, then rear device broke

While Espargaro counted himself fortunate to finish, a more dramatic technical problem cruelly took Vinales out of his best race as an Aprilia𒀰 rider.

Making the most of the medium ♊rear tyre to climb from ninth to fourth in the opening laps, Vinales was locked onto the struggli🌃ng sister RS-GP of Espargaro throughout the middle stages.

Biding his꧒ time and expecting to get even stronger in the final laps,༺ a first Aprilia podium looked on the cards.

But with 13 laps to go his rear ride-height device became jammed in the downward position. The Spaniard fought🦩 in vain to release the system but was forced to retire.

“Actually I’m very happy because today I enjoyed riding,” Vinale🍌s began. “We made a good start, I was strong, I had many black marks on my leathers from fighting in the first corner!

“And then I was just keeping the pace. I knew the last 10 laps were going to be 🍒my best because I was keeping a good performance from the tyre. But the rear device broke and then my chanc🍬e of staying on the track was very difficult.

“One time I was 0.1s 🧸from Aleix, going to attack and then I started to feel the bike a little bit more down and start to have chatter and I said ‘I don't understand’. But then all of a sudden - ‘boom’ – down!

“It got [stuck] down and it never came back.

“I lost the front in Turn🌠 8 ✃because of that, and it was dangerous to be on the track.

“I mean, if I didn’t crash in turn 8, I would crash in the downhill🅰! It was impossible to ride.”

Vinales added: “But I’ve already forgotten about it. This weekend was very important, because last ye꧋ar here for me was a very down moment [last place with Yamaha] and this year it was the best race of the year.

“So, one year can 𓆏change a lot. We need to ma♏intain the concentration, we are working in the correct way and we are making a lot of steps, very fast.

“I think all these races has been like a super training, to make myself even stronger. I can overtake easier. I'm better on the first laps. So I just feel all these steps will make me a bet🅰ter rider. And at least 🧔I was battling for the podium.

“We just need🦂 to keep calm, we know when we will reach the point where the bike and myself are [fully together], we will go 🍒for it, I'm sure.”

Vinales – who was using the same ‘manual’ ride-height system as Espargaro, rather than the ‘automatic’ version - wasn’t th♔e only rider forced out of Sunday’s race by a broken rear ride-height device, with Alex Marquez suffering the same issue on his LCR Honda.