Fermin Aldeguer: “Marc Marquez is my idol, Alex is my team-mate”
Fermin Aldeguer rolls the dice on the medium rear tyre and emerges with a Sprint podium at the Aragon MotoGP.
A clever medium rear tyre gamble helped MotoGP rookie Fermin Aldeguer claim his second Sprint podium of the season on Saturday at Aragon.
Starting from seventh place, the Gresini rider was up to fifth on lap one, then picked off Pedro Acosta and Franco Morbidelli to join team-mate Alex Marquez and title leader Marc Marquez on the rostrum.
“We were very fast!” Aldeguer said. “Maybe the Sprint is too short for the medium to work, but we did a god job when we took this decision and now we have more information for tomorrow.”
While the soft rear was the overwhelming favourite for the half-distance race, the medium is set to dominate the grand prix grid – when Aldeguer will be one of only five riders to have extra knowledge of the tyre from the Sprint.
“Why don’t we try it. We’re rookies. If we finish seventh, we don’t take a lot of points [anyway] but we will have more info for tomorrow,” Aldeguer said.
“Today it was good and I’m super happy with the decision.”
“We talked with the team, maybe the medium wouldn’t perform on the first laps.
"But Frankie [Carchedi, crew chief] said to me, now you know the Michelin tyre. If you try to push more than the grip you have, maybe you’ll lose more time. Be calm and do the race lap by lap.
“In the start, I fought with Pedro, but the tyre wasn’t ready. Then after some laps it was better. We managed the race well.”
The young Spaniard admitted that being a rookie means he has more freedom to make such tyre decisions.
“Also Marc probably knew the medium was better, but he had more to lose,” he said.
“I just said, ‘if I feel good with this tyre, why don’t we try it?’ We are rookies. We played with this advantage.”
Aragon was the second time this season that Aldeguer has joined the Marquez brothers on the Sprint rostrum, after his debut top three at Le Mans.
“It's super nice. Marc is my idol. Alex is my team-mate. Now we will have party in Gresini hospitality. It can’t be better – unless I’m first!” he smiled.
Aldeguer, eighth in the world championship, will be chasing his second grand prix podium of the season on Sunday.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
