The Aprilia rider was running strongly inside the top seven at the start of the race, but dropped down 12th after flag-to-flag bike swap.
Able to recover back up to sixth in the wet conditions, Espargaro’s RS-GP expired on lap 16 due to an unknown technical issue – with team-mate Lorenzo Savadori suffering a similar fate on lap 12.
“Yeah, I’m very frustrated, more than ever because of how difficult this weekend was in Le Mans,” Espargaro fumed.
“I had a very tricky beginning of the weekend, [on Saturday] we had a problem with one engine and I crashed twice.
“We start in P13, it goes flag-to-flag but sincerely I’m very proud about my level because in the dry I did a good start, I felt very strong in the dry.
“I couldn’t make many laps but I knew why won’t I be fast, if I was fast in the other circuits.
“So, I started super convinced about myself and I felt very, very strong.
“Before the rain started, I was catching Marc [Marquez] and [Takaaki] Nakagami, [Alex] Rins was a little bit faster but Rins was already in P3 or P4.
Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“So, I’m very confident and when it started to rain I was very angry.
“I took the rain bike, I lose many positions in the first lap, but then I started for the first time in many years to feel fast in the wet and I started to overtake Valentino [Rossi], [Iker] Lecuona, [Danilo] Petrucci, my brother, [Maverick] Vinales in just two laps.
“So, it’s a big shame to lose these points because today we could have finished quite easy in top five, top six.”
Espargaro underwent surgery on arm-pump on Monday in Barcelona, having previously struggled with the issue at Jerez.
He is expected to make a full recovery for the Italian GP in two weeks’ time.
Espargaro is the fourth rider this season to have an operation on arm-pump, with Ducati’s Jack Miller, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Tech3’s Lecuona having similar procedures.
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