Aprilia is leading in their first MotoGP championship since 2004 – and to say they are excited is the understatement of the year.
The weekend’s press release saw Aleix Espargaró riding out his 200th GP in the premier class. Having had a delayed start in pole position, Espargaró went on to battle out for the leading position with VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini holding the first 17 of 25 laps.
Espargaró finally succeeded in taking over for the last few laps, eventually breaking free of Marini’s chokehold and speeding into a brilliant lead – one that, according to Motorsport, saw the young racer with an 0.807s difference and was almost certainly one of the more emotional memories for the team.
“I’m very proud of this milestone we’ve reached,” says the man himself in a press report from Aprilia.
“It was a fantastic weekend, but it wasn’t a simple race. In practice I was extremely fast, as well as in the warm-up session, but in the race I struggled a bit with a lack of grip. I tried changing the electronic settings several times to overcome these problems and, in the end, I managed to improve.”
“I was faster than Martín by a few tenths, but it wasn’t at all easy to overtake him, partly because it was a new situation for me. I had never been in the position to battle for a win in MotoGP.”
“I would like to thank again all the team, who is working hard in Noale and the Piaggio Group for the support. Now we’re leading in the championship, but we’ll just try to take advantage of this positive moment, continuing to have fun and keeping our feet planted firmly on the ground.”
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