Espargaró Beats Martín For First MotoGP Win For Him & Aprilia
Calum Gill 20:09 03/04/2022
Aleix Espargaró claimed an incredible milestone win for himself and Aprilia in an exciting duel against Jorge Martín in MotoGP’s Termas de Río Hondo race.
In what was Espargaró’s 200th MotoGP start, the Spaniard delivered a first-ever premier-class win for his Italian employer, while also recording his own maiden triumph in any class of grand prix racing. Espargaró’s Aprilia was very sluggish off pole at the start, but managed to minimise the damage with a good entry into Turn 1 that left him second only to a fast-starting Martín - whose initial half-second lead was then quickly eroded. The pair then made quick work of breaking away from the chasing pack, monopolising the battle for the lead over the first 10 laps, before Espargaró suddenly dropped a second back from Martín through a succession of sub-optimal corners. A couple of laps later though, he was back on Martín’s tail and putting pressure on the Pramac man - which grew increasingly sustained lap after lap.
With eight laps to go, Espargaró slipstreamed past Martín out of Turn 4, only to fail to get his braking right into Turn 5 and hand the position back immediately. He tried again at the same spot two laps later, and was again unable to get his RS-GP stopped in time. The third time, however, was the charm, and after completing the pass at Turn 5 Espargaró immediately went about eking out a lead, doing enough to keep his fellow Spaniard and his excellent top speed at bay through the two main straights of the circuit. It took Espargaró until the penultimate lap to finally break Martín’s resistance, the Aprilia coming through to win by eight tenths and take the championship lead to boot.
Behind Martín, who had gotten off the mark for the season after two crashes in the first two races, Suzuki’s Álex Rins completed the podium - having fought through to third early on but never quite able to make up the gap the leading duo had established. Joan Mir made it two Suzukis in the top four, while Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia fought through from 13th to finish fifth, him and KTM rider Brad Binder outfoxing Espargaró’s Aprilia team-mate Maverick Viñales late on. Reigning champion Fabio Quartararo had a difficult race, dropping back to as low as 13th at one point before recovering to a final eighth, as Yamaha’s only points-scorer of the day – with both Franco Morbidelli and Andrea Dovizioso thwarted by apparent mechanical issues.
VR46 Ducati rookie Marco Bezzecchi shone in ninth despite running Álex Márquez and Stefan Bradl - standing in for Marc Marquez - out wide at the start. Erstwhile points leader Enea Bastianini (Gresini) was compromised by a botched Turn 5 overtaking attempt on his former team-mate Luca Marini, but ultimately recovered to 10th, with Marini -who stayed in the battle for third early on after starting from the front row but ultimately faded - right behind him, just 0.040 seconds up on Takaaki Nakagami - who was originally supposed to miss this race due to a positive COVID-19 test. It was a difficult day for both KTM’s Indonesian GP winner Miguel Oliveira and Ducati's Jack Miller, who battled each other for an eventual 13th and 14th, with Márquez (LCR Honda) completing the points-paying positions.
Aleix’s brother Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda) was the highest-profile faller, tumbling out of fourth place while chasing after Rins. Beyond the Honda factory man, there were also crashes for Johann Zarco (Pramac) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini).
