After the intense Barcelona Grand Prix, Ducati rival Enea Bastianini lashed out at Aprilia rival Aleix Espargaro. He claimed to have spent the entire race supporting his friend Jorge Martin's title bid. Espargaro, starting from second on the grid, settled into fourth place and acted as a rear-gunner for championship protagonist Martin. Bastianini initially challenged Espargaro for the first third of the race, but the Spaniard retaliated each time. A mistake at the exit of Turn 1 forced Bastianini to take the escape road, leaving him to fight for a place in the lower region of the top 10. As a result, he lost the battle with Marc Marquez for third place in the championship. Following the race, Bastianini was clear that he found Espargaro's defence unprofessional, especially as it was Espargaro's last grand prix as a full-time racer. He said, "I lost much time with Aleix today and it has been impossible to do more than my result. Not happy about what Aleix had done because for me it’s not correct. Without the fight with Aleix, [it] probably was possible to do something more for myself but he did all the race for Martin. Well, of course, he is really friends with Jorge. but for the rest on the track you can’t do something like this."

His Anger and Reflections

Bastianini added that it was Espargaro's last race and maybe he could have achieved a better result or even fought for the podium. He was visibly angry and said, "I understand that he has a great friendship with Jorge, but he has destroyed the race of other riders. There are things that should not happen in a championship like ours." Pramac rider Martin took the chequered flag in third place, beating race winner Bagnaia by 10 points in the championship. This made him the first-ever rider to win a title on a satellite bike in the MotoGP era and the first in the history of the premier class since Valentino Rossi's triumph in 2001 on a Nastro Azzurro Honda. It also meant that Martin will go to Espargaro's current team Aprilia as the reigning world champion in 2025, having signed a two-year deal.

Espargaro's Perspective

Espargaro admitted that he wanted to support Martin in his title pursuit and described him as a "little brother". He said, "We both had a feeling that it was all the Ducatis against him, which is completely normal. They tried to retain the title and the feeling I had was I was the only one to protect my little brother and his title. So even when I was on the grid, [it was] very motivating for me because it was the last one. Once the race had started I was completely focused, I rode on the limit of the bike more than ever in my career, trying to protect him [Martin] as much as possible, and I’m very happy and proud to be able to help him a little bit."

Denying Intentional Slowing

However, Espargaro denied that he wasn't riding slowly on purpose to prevent Bastianini from catching Martin. He referred to his hard-fought battle with the Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez, which ended with him losing fourth place on the penultimate lap, as proof that he was pushing as hard as he could in his final grand prix appearance. Responding to Bastianini's allegations, Espargaro said, "They told me that Enea said that it’s not beautiful to end a career like this, not fighting for the podium. The only thing I will respond [to is that] it’s not fair to say this. In the last lap I was waiting for him to fight but he was three seconds behind me with the factory Ducati. So I don’t know what he was referring to. Alex Marquez did an amazing race and he beat me and Enea couldn’t. So I did the maximum possible. If he thinks that I tried to be slow it’s impossible. I rode over the limit, I was the only one to be able to put a bike in the middle of the Ducati mix. So I was over the limit all the race."