Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro goes into the summer break in second place in the World Championship: with consistently strong results, the Spaniard has emerged as a major challenger
MotoGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) goes into the five-week summer break as the World Championship leader despite a zero lap at the Assen race. The Frenchman is also the big favourite this year. Vice world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) dropped important points in some races in the first half of the season and is only fourth in the world championship. Quartararo’s first rival at the moment is Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro. With consistently strong results, Espargaro has developed into a major challenger.
In the third race of the current season, Espargaro celebrated his first victory in MotoGP. It was also Espargaro’s first Grand Prix victory. Before the start of the season, the Spaniard was the only rider in the MotoGP field who had not yet won a World Championship race. Espargaro removed this blemish on 3 April 2022.
In the following races, Espargaro confirmed that his victory in Argentina was no fluke. Espargaro finished on the podium four times in a row with the Aprilia RS-GP. That streak ended in Barcelona when Espargaro took the pace out a lap too early and gave away a fifth consecutive podium.
Will there be a world championship showdown with Fabio Quartararo?
With his battling race in Assen, Espargaro demonstrated that he has the will to achieve the unexpected this year. If it hadn’t been for the unintentional ride into the gravel, the Aprilia rider could have fought for the win.
Can Espargaro reach for the crown this year and dethrone Quartararo? “I know how big Fabio’s confidence is. I spent a lot of time watching the footage of the races and the sessions,” he commented.
“I know how he drives and that his confidence is very high. But it’s not easy to conserve that confidence when you’re so fast,” the Aprilia rider analyses, commenting on Quartararo’s mistake at turn 5: “He wasn’t too arrogant. He misjudged the situation because he felt he was faster than the rest. I was aware that this could happen. “
Aleix Espargaro narrows gap to 21 points at Assen
“Fabio is almost perfect and doesn’t make any mistakes during the season. When he does make a mistake, you have to take advantage of it,” explained Espargaro, who made up 13 points on the World Championship leader at Assen.
Is Espargaro sad that he can’t take the momentum from Assen with him because the MotoGP season doesn’t resume until August? “I am very exhausted and need a break. It doesn’t have to be five weeks, but mentally it has been more difficult so far this year than in previous years. That’s normal, because I’m fighting for the title,” notes the Aprilia rider.
