He was born next door, in Granollers, although he lives and is a resident of Andorra. He tells that when the school teacher opened the classroom window, she heard the motorcycles in the Montmelo circuit. He does not say, no, that that caused his love, his passion, his madness for motorcycles, for motorcycle racing, for competition, but he does remember it as something very intimate and, above all, as an anecdote that he generates, annually , the illusion of wanting to win at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya. And today, in the sprint race, the short one, the one with 12 laps, Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) he triumphed big, wildly, beating the Italian ‘pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati).
Espargaró, who last year lost the second position that he had more than assured behind the Frenchman Fabio Quartaro (Yamaha) discounting the laps and believing that his penultimate pass through the finish line was already his last, today he has been more attentive than ever to the lap counter at the Montmeló control tower, now even bigger than last year, so as not to lose this time, victory. Perhaps for this reason, with his usual humor, the eldest of the Espargarós has released a helmet today that has given him great luck and where you could read “one more lap”.
controlled escape
The race did not have much history. Bagnaia escaped, excuse me, he tried to escape, as soon as the traffic light went out, perfectly aware that the power demonstrated by Aprilia on this track (“they have much more grip than the rest of the bikes,” said the Italian champion) he was going to turn, as it has been, the two riders from the Noale team into tremendous rivals, Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales.
In the middle of the race, Aleix has accelerated more than Bagnaia the braking at the end of the immense Montmeló straight and, after coming out of his slipstream, has made a very clean overtaking of ‘Pecco’, has become the leader and, from there , has escaped, proving, in fact, to control the situation on the Catalan circuit much better than any other rival, who registered a wonderful entry.
“We dedicate this one-two on the Aprilia podium to our president, who recently passed away and would have been very proud of his brand”
Aprilia Racing team rider
“Everyone knows that for us to win here, next to home, is wonderful, so we should try to repeat the victory tomorrow”, Aleix commented with a wide smile on his lips. “Everything has gone very well, we are all very happy and, at Arilia, we want to dedicate this victory to our president, Roberto Colaninowho recently passed away and who would have loved to see, for the first time in MotoGP history, two Aprilias on the podium.”
Because behind Aleix and Bagnaia he qualified Maverick Vinales, who fought desperately in the last lap to overtake a Bagnaia, who covered all the gaps and prevented Noale’s signature double on the podium in Montmeló. “Everyone has seen that I have tried, but my front tire, which has overheated excessively, was a big risk if I pushed more than necessary. Tomorrow (Sunday) we will try again, since it is being a weekend Fantastic week for us.”
Bagnaia, more leader
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Bagnaia, for his part, admitted into Dorna TV’s microphone that, obviously, it is “much better to win, but in such a long and complicated championship, the important thing is to be regular and this second place allows me to escape four more points from Jorge ( Martín, 51) and consolidate myself as the leader. I already said yesterday that the Aprilia had a little more grip than us, but we’ll see if we can beat them tomorrow”.
Drivers World Cup: 1. ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Italy, Ducati), 260 points; 2. Jorge Martín (Spain, Ducati), 194 and 3. Marco Bezzecchi (Italy, Ducati), 185.