Raul Fernandez reveals where Australia MotoGP sprint win chance vanished

Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez believes he “pushed too much” in the early laps of the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix sprint, which stopped him from resisting Marco Bezzecchi.

The satellite Aprilia rider snatched the lead from fourth on the grid on the opening lap with an overtake on Gresini’s Alex Marquez at Turn 2.

Raul Fernandez proceeded to lead the 13-lap sprint until the 10th tour, when eventual winner Marco Bezzecchi on the factory team Aprilia came through at Turn 2.

Bezzecchi pulled over three seconds clear to the chequered flag, with Fernandez celebrating his second successive sprint podium in MotoGP.

“Today, I tried everything,” he said.

“When I saw that I was first, I just tried to be relaxed, tried not to make a mistake, and tried to do my maximum.

“When I saw in the last part of the race… I think in the beginning of the race I pushed too much, and in the last part of the race I didn’t have more rear tyre.

“So, I just tried to survive, because when I saw Marco come with this pace, I didn’t have more to follow him.

“So, I just tried to survive. I think this is an important race again, very strong, super comfortable race, also because at the end I was not making a lot of mistakes.

“So, it is the race that you always expected, but normally it’s not an easy race to manage.”

“We are ready” for Australian Grand Prix victory battle

Fernandez is confident of being able to fight for victory again on Sunday at Phillip Island, as he has done all of his set-up work this weekend on the more durable medium rear tyre.

“For me, tomorrow, the important thing will be to warm the rear tyre up well,” he added.

“It will not be an easy situation to manage.

“But anyway, I think the more important thing is to try to be relaxed, try to know that we worked very well yesterday and today with the medium.

“So, I need to be relaxed because the work, in terms of set-up, has been done on the medium. So, we are ready.”

Bezzecchi will have to serve a double long lap penalty on Sunday for a collision with Marc Marquez in Indonesia, which opens the door for Fernandez to pull further away from his Aprilia counterpart in the race.

However, he is wary of the pace Bezzecchi has.

“It is something that we have in mind, but I think Marco also has a really good pace,” he said.

“He has pace enough to come back. So, we need to be very focused on ourselves. It is the key that helped me a lot and is the philosophy that I want to keep.”