Milestones were achieved in Argentina earlier today when Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) won his first MotoGP race after his 200th start in the category. This was also the first win achieved by Aprilia in the MotoGP category.
A change from the prior race in Mandalika, the riders were greeted by a dry track and sunny conditions in Argentina. Much of the race was led by Jorge Martin (Ducati), who eventually finished in second place. The Suzuki of Alex Rins came home third.
Riders will be on the track in Austin, Texas next weekend for Round 4. Aleix Espargaro will take the championship points lead into that event. For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
This will not be Noale’s last win. Viva la Aprilia.
Wow, seldom in the history of sports has redemption stood any taller. Aleix has been mocked for years on MotoGP sites for never shutting his mouth while never sniffing being competitive in a race. If there was an incident 45 seconds ahead of him, he was the first person to squeal to the press. About a year ago, he seemed to stopped chirping like a cicada while while shifting to focusing more on his real role of being a lead factory rider. His bike certainly got much better, too. It’s great to see him finally win, and even better to see that he did it with newfound dignity.
Is the alien nation over, did it ever exist?l aware we entering the “NASCAR” era of MOTO GP? Are things that level now or did I underestimate everyone ever. This year has been crazy And has the opportunity to turn this season into something that has been witnessed i in decades.
Aleix was the most gracious winner I’ve ever seen in MotoGP. His hard work and patience payed off.
The post race interview of the three place winners was great. Not only did Martin and Rins compliment Aleix, but hugs among the three were given. A nice camaraderie to see, especially these days of me, me me…
you’d think that with all the seat time bradl has been getting these past coupla years that he could beat the rookies fernandez, gardner and binder.
Jeremy McWilliams NEVER won a 500 or MotoGP race. In fact, he only won a single 250cc GP race. If I remember right, he did manage to get a pole position on the Aprilia 500cc twin, which is remarkable in itself.
You are correct. I was thinking about Jeremy’s pole position earned for Aprilia. Article is corrected.
Got sucked into the series on Amazon Prime, which is fascinating. The Spanish and Italians look to have much distain for KTM as its barely shown. Not this year, they look very good. Super happy that the Aprilia finally won. Great racing.
you’d think that bradl could beat the rookies fernandez, gardner and binder, what with all the seat time he’s been getting these past coupla years.
This win had all the elements of a great story. Bravo. I wanted to go fire up my Aprilia and hold the throttle wide open like that kid in Taylor Mackenzie video. Now a question – WHY is there such parity between manufactures and racers this year? Is it rules, riders or changes in budgets with smaller manufacturers now pouring money into development?
Rules. Several years back it was primarilly a wallet race. There were 12 bikes on the MotoGP grid and 40 on the Moto2 grid. At that time there were exactly 3 bikes with any chance in the world of winning. They decided to change the rules to reign in costs to which Honda vigorously resisted. They basically told Honda to pound sand/take their ball and go home if they didn’t want to play and proceeded.
Brands without wins were allowed concessions to the engine allocation, development and fuel capacity rules until they achieved milestones so Suzuki, KTM, Ducati and Aprilia could catch up.
Before we had winners lapping up into the top 5-6. Now we have 10th place finishing a handful of seconds behind the winner and 9 different riders standing on the podium in 3x races. F1 is watching…
One could argue that such rules fly in the face of what a true prototype racing class is supposed to be. But you can’t argue the entertainment value and commercial success those rules have ushered in.
I would like to see them allow dual-clutch transmissions though. That’s one rule I don’t really understand.
Hmm? I thought the super trick seamless transmissions they use are dual clutch.
The seamless transmission is something they came up with to get around the single clutch rule. They are wickedly expensive and need to be fully rebuilt after each race. And like Dave mentioned below, it is a “must have” technology to be competitive. The same thing can be achieved with dual clutch tech with the clutch packs being the only real consumables. Plus, dct’s actually have application in the real world that could really benefit from racing development unlike the seamless boxes.
Thanks Jeremy. I looked it up after posting.😬
That’ll always be the issue with prototype racing – ultimately the player with the biggest budget wins and anyone not close can’t justify continuing. Sponsors don’t want to invest in 5th place. It has to be possible to win.
Personally, I wouldn’t miss GP if it went away and all road racing was conducted on manufactured bikes. Most people can’t “see” the difference in speed between a GP bike and a Superbike. It hasn’t hurt MX. Shortly after AMA put production rules in place, the US became the pinnacle of MX racing for decades.
I don’t get the DCT thing, either. The stepless transmissions are wildly expensive and are a “have to have it” tech.
I like that GP is a platform that allows manufacturers to build some pretty radical bikes without needing to be concerned with selling a certain number of machines for homologation. I haven’t ridden a CBR in a long time – I think a 2008 model was the last one I rode – but I always found them to surprisingly usable bikes for real world riding. That’s true of most liter bikes from the mid to late 2000’s. I always felt it could be that way because the manufacturers used MotoGP as their “win on Sunday” marketing.
They needed the new rules badly, and I don’t miss the old days without them. It has made MotoGP possibly the best motorsport racing series there is.
Would the racing still be great with this grid of riders on production machines? I think so, but unlike you, I do believe I would miss the GP bikes. What I would like to see is Moto3 racing production 600s (though 600s aren’t really a thing any more) and the Moto2 guys on production 1000s. Not supersport and superbikes mind you, but something very close to production with allowance for exhaust, basic ECU tuning, suspension work, and brakes.
Great to see loyalty and persistance, never say die attitude win through in the end. I love it when a new rider and manufacturer wins. When the same rider is winning every race (almost) for years I lose a lot of interest. Even lost interest when Doohan was winning; and I’m an Aussie!
This season is going to be like cats fighting in a bag.
Kudos to Aprilia and the whole Espargaro clan. Those folks may still be partying on this global time stamp right now. Do they even have a term for “late at night there”?
As much as I like to see someone like Rossi or Doohan rule the circuits ( I’m not a fan of MM but his talent is remarkable) the best racing season is when unpredictable happens. Today’s Moto GP race had all the boxes checked for any fan. The fact that KTM and Aprilia are up front and the big guns are trying to catch up is a true David and Goliath story.
Holy shite. I can’t remember the last time I was willing a particular rider to win a race with all my might. Congrats to Espagaro and Aprilia.
As a long time Aprilia rider this makes me smile.
Three good races and a well earned win by Aleix and Aprilia.
Crazy fact: Nine different podium finishers over the first three races.
That has to be a first.
And the racing is SUPER tight. Blow a turn at the wrong time and you can lose 2-5 places. It’s never been better.
Great ride and race for first. Congrats to Aleix and Aprilia. They looked superb today.
Great ride for Martin on the Duc as well.