Aleix Espargaró is not having the second half of the season that he would like. The one from Granollers lost second place overall in Misano, in favor of Pecco Bagnaia and his meteoric post-summer rise.
The rider from Aprilia, with the positivity that characterizes him, is confident for this last third of the campaign , although he acknowledged at Thursday’s press conference that he needs to get back on the podium if he doesn’t want to drop out of the fight for the title.
“Having finished the last two races in sixth position has not been the best for the championship. But they were difficult circuits, and I am satisfied with the effort we made,” said Aleix. “Now we come to a series of circuits that I love, and Aragon is one of the tracks where I go best.”
And the fact is that the oldest of the Espargaró family already knows what it means to get on the podium at Motorland . He did it in 2014, when he finished second on a Forward Yamaha under Open regulations, and was about to repeat it in 2021, when he finished fourth.
“There are a lot of high-banked corners,” explains Aleix. “It’s quite difficult for me to brake at the end of the straight, but when the corners allow me to open up and then lean in, the bike has a lot of stability. That’s the reason why the Aragón has been so good so far, and the RS-GP from 2022 is the best Aprilia to date, so I’m really looking forward to getting out on the track.”
But it would be unfair to mention that he has gone six Grands Prix without opening a champagne cork and not remembering that he raced at Silverstone with a broken ankle. To complicate things even more, Aleix arrives in Aragón with a small fracture in the little finger of his left hand. However, the Catalan declared that he is “well”. “It’s not the best looking [finger], but I’m not in too much pain. It won’t be a problem,” he predicted.
Now he has a series of routes ahead of him from which, according to him, he can extract oil . “The championship is coming to an end, and having five races in six weeks is crazy. It’s going to be very demanding, but also fun, and there are a lot of points to be won or lost.”
“We have to be competitive again, like in the first half of the season. Aragón is a circuit that I love and I hope to get back on the podium”, he concluded.
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