Star rookie showing in Qatar MotoGP hindered by “bad luck”

Gresini Ducati rookie Fermin Aldeguer enjoyed his best weekend of his maiden MotoGP season so far at the Qatar Grand Prix, but “bad luck” stopped it from being even better.

The 20-year-old was denied a top five finish in the Americas GP after he crashed late on in the grand prix, but was able to carry that form over to last weekend’s Qatar GP.

Qualifying eighth, Fermin Aldeguer was fourth in the sprint at Lusail before taking a season-best sixth in the grand prix at the chequered flag - which became fifth when second-placed Maverick Vinales was handed a post-race penalty.

Aldeguer was only 7.484s away from race winner Marc Marquez and just under a second behind eventual third-place finisher Franco Morbidelli on the VR46-run GP24.

While pleased with his progress, Aldeguer explained that “bad luck” with his rear medium tyre ultimately stopped him from challenging for more.

“We have to stay very happy with the weekend because we did an incredible work,” Aldeguer told MotoGP’s official website.

“Always the progression is up. We don’t do this up and down because it’s important to not lose the good way.

“Very happy with the weekend. We were very competitive in all conditions, during the free practices and races.

“Bad luck, I think, because we are not so happy with the rear tyre of the race because I had a lot of chattering, three or four times more than the other Ducati riders.

“We have to analyse this and try to see where is the problem and continue improving.”

Aldeguer heads to the European portion of the championship “happy” with his base set-up and confident he can carry on his strong form from Qatar.

“Jerez is one track that I like a lot,” he said, looking ahead to the Spanish GP.

“In the last year I won there with Moto2.

“It’s very special for the Spanish riders with all the people, all the support.

“I always try to do my best. Now we go to Europe, different tracks, smaller tracks.

“We have to understand the bike also in these conditions. But I’m happy with my base. I think we can do also good races in Europe.”