MOTO GP

Espargaró takes Aprilia to the top for the first time

The Spanish Aleix Espargaró has achieved the first victory for Aprilia in the entire history of the premier class after beating Jorge Martín, with Álex Rins and Joan Mir signing a Spanish poker. With this victory, achieved in his 200th GP in MotoGP, Aleix is ​​the new leader of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship, where no rider has repeated on the podium to date.

Jorge Martín made good predictions and took off like a plane to overtake Aleix Espargaró, who after signing a historic pole yesterday had to take risks in the first two corners to defend second place against Luca Marini and Pol Espargaró. From behind, Andrea Dovizioso entered the pits, anticipating a tough day at the office for the Yamahas.

Martín and Aleix quickly put land in between, with Marini progressively losing places: Pol Espargaró inherited the podium until he was overtaken by Álex Rins, with Joan Mir breaking away from Maverick Viñales to try to move forward. Two dropouts came from behind: Johann Zarco crashed when he was out of the top ten, and Franco Morbidelli saw his Yamaha break when he was out of points.

The pace of Jorge Martín and Aleix Espargaró had allowed them to open an interesting lead by the time Álex Rins had placed third, since the Suzuki rider did seem capable of replicating his times and stopped the gap in two seconds. The pace of the 42 was such that, shortly after passing the halfway point of the race, Pol Espargaró fell to the ground when he tried to follow him.

That broke the dream of seeing a totally Spanish top 6… and in the end it couldn't even be a top 5, since Maverick Viñales was diluted until he was overtaken by Pecco Bagnaia and Brad Binder. What would remain unchanged was the top 4, which was gradually being compressed: the Suzukis were flying at the end of the race and threatened to sneak into the victory party.

Above all because the first two overtaking attempts by Aleix Espargaró were uneventful: in both cases he managed to catch up with Martín on the straight, but he hurried up the braking so much that he went slightly long and was unable to consolidate the pass, which above all benefited a Rins who was licking his lips to see how these maneuvers allowed him to win free tenths. The good news for the Aprilia rider is that it didn't cost him any effort to get back in the wake of the Pramac's Ducati.

The third time was the charm, with a double meaning: the third attempt (at the same point) was more intelligent, forcing Martín to brake a little more on the outside to become strong at the apex, consolidate the overtaking with five laps remaining to go and set course for his first victory… in the third time he started from pole position in MotoGP.

He did not give up a millimeter in the last laps despite the push of Jorge Martín, which was enough for him to be second while containing Álex Rins, who in turn defended the podium from Joan Mir who finished as the fastest on the track to complete fourth Spanish poker history.

Much further back, Pecco Bagnaia saved a fifth place ahead of Brad Binder and Maverick Viñales; with Fabio Quartararo as the first Yamaha in eighth position ahead of Marco Bezzecchi, who signed a race to finish ninth ahead of Enea Bastianini and Luca Marini. The first Honda was Takaaki Nakagami, twelfth, with Álex Márquez 15th and Raúl Fernández 16th.

Autonews