Because although Espargaro was pushing too soon with the hard tyre he wasn’t yet up to full speed. Before MotoGP spec software was introduced in 2016 most factories had adaptive traction control, so the motorcycle measured grip many times per second and adjusted its anti-spin programme accordingly. The current TC isn’t adaptive, so teams write the maps to make the TC work within certain parameters for the best-possible race performance, usually using as little TC as possible. And Espargaro wasn’t within those parameters when the rear let go.
No surprise that Espargaro needed painkillers for the race, but MotoGP doesn’t use some of the more controversial (and possibly more effective) painkilling treatments it once did. Riders are only allowed NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen and naproxen), via pills or injection.
Mesotherapy, which uses multiple micro-injections into subcutaneous fat (not muscle) specifically around the injury, was once MotoGP’s favourite way to reduce pain, but not because it’s nice. As Valentino Rossi once said, “I have very much fear of the mesotherapy needle.”
Espargaro was undoubtedly the hero of the race, which proved, as places like Silverstone, Philip Island and Assen usually do, that fast tracks make for great racing. He finished ninth, 3.9 seconds behind Bagnaia, in the second-closet top ten in more than seven decades of grand prix racing. Just 6.6 seconds separated the winner from tenth-placed Marco Bezzecchi.
“I didn’t have much pain,” said Espargaro, who almost certainly has a very different pain thermostat compared to you and me. “But I couldn’t move freely on the bike, I couldn’t help make it turn and I couldn’t be aggressive, so I didn’t make one overtake in the race, while everyone overtook me where I crashed, because I didn’t have any speed there. Now I feel pain everywhere: my legs, my back, my neck.”
The fact that team-mate Maverick Vinales, whom Espargaro has out-performed at every track (apart from COTA, his bogy circuit), finished second at Silverstone, attacking Bagnaia for the win on the last lap, suggests that Espargaro would’ve won if he hadn’t been in such a state.
“Today I missed a good opportunity to close the points gap on Fabio,” he added. “But this is racing…”