MADRID, 2 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish rider Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) gave the first great joy to the local fans of the Catalunya Grand Prix, the tenth round of the Motorcycle World Championship, after winning this Saturday in the Sprint race with great authority ahead of the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati). .
The Catalan achieved his first victory in this format after putting on a real exhibition, demonstrating the good progression that the brand from Noale is having after the break, which completed the podium with Maverick Viñales, and a reinforcement to try to win this Sunday in the ‘home’ race.
The man from Granollers had left very good feelings during ‘Practice’ and qualifying, and he culminated in this race where he gave the current world champion no options, although the Italian grabbed second place despite Viñales’ insistence and strengthened his leadership in general.
In any case, Bagnaia, ‘poleman’, came out very well and took the lead from the first moment in a Sprint with the threat of rain, although the Aprilias replied with their two official riders to start a chase, only within reach of Aleix Espargaró , who managed to get hooked on the ‘Desmosedici’ and bided his time.
The Spanish pilot, after a failed attempt, overtook the Italian with six laps to go and from that moment no one could give him a ‘hunt’, taking the win with almost two seconds ahead. The joy could not be complete for Aprilia because Viñales, despite taking the Italian, could not finally overtake him and had to settle for third place.
For his part, the eight-time world champion Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) was once again the best Honda on the grid, although he was unable to score points by finishing in eleventh position, despite the fact that he was in seventh position at times.
In this way, with this victory, Aleix Espargaró rises to fifth place in the general classification of the World Cup with 129 points, while Francesco Bagnaia stands with 260, 66 ahead of the Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati), who could only be fifth.