Aleix Espargaró was born on July 30, 1989, just five kilometers from where the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is located today, a facility opened a year later, and which since 1992 has hosted the Motorcycle World Championship.
“When I was little, in the summer, we had the windows of the school open and we listened to the motors of the cars and motorcycles that rolled in Montmeló, the neighboring city of Granollers. “Since then I have always dreamed of one day being a pilot and competing in the Circuit”, the Catalan assured this afternoon.
The dream of being a pilot came true very soon, when he was just 11 years old , and the dream of racing on this circuit came on June 12, 2005, when in his first full year in the World Championship, he took part in the home race, the sixth in that course and Aleix’s seventh in the paddock. That day he finished 15th in the 125cc test.
Espargaró was never one of the riders who were fighting for victories, much less for the championships, but his first podium, being in Moto2, came right in Montmeló, in 2011, the track where he has ridden the most in his 33 years of life .
This Sunday, Aleix, for the first time, will run in the ‘garden of his house’, opting to leave Catalonia as the leader of the championship and being one of the candidates for victory, the second of his life, after the one achieved this year in Argentina . “That victory made me very excited, logically, it was the first, but winning in Montmeló would be much more important, this is my home race, I was born here and it would be very special”, he admitted.
A triumph that this year is accompanied by enormous competitiveness and five podiums, four of them achieved consecutively in the last four races, something that has only been achieved by two active riders, Marc Márquez and Andrea Dovizioso.
“Like everything that is happening this year, it is something difficult to explain, to understand, to digest, even to give an explanation myself, that I am the protagonist. I can only try to enjoy it. It is a very special grand prize, there is no historical star of this race, which is Marc [Márquez], so this year getting here fighting for the title is a huge responsibility and pride,” Aleix explained this Thursday after the official press conference prior to the grand prix.
As well as arriving at his best, he does so on an Aprilia RS-GP which has become one of the best bikes on the grid and this track suits him like a glove.
“I sincerely believe that this circuit is going well for us, last year we were competitive here, and this year the bike works better. Where I lose the most with Fabio Quartararo is in the changes of direction, there are no chicanes here, so the bike will work well” .
Despite the cloud in which this course has been installed, Aleix remains with his feet on the ground.
“I’m not going to lie to you, the goal is to win on Sunday, but it will be very difficult and you have to understand where to draw the fine line between consistency and taking risks to win a grand prix, we’ll understand during practice.”
“This grand prix is the one I’ve dreamed of winning all my life. The podium in Jerez is the one I value the most, more than the first or the victory in Argentina, seeing myself on the podium in Jerez was brutal. I’ve raced a million of times there, I had never made a podium and there I was, third in the premier category. Well imagine in Barcelona, which is my home”.
For Aleix there is no coherent explanation to understand the season he is having with the Aprilia.
“I can’t explain it, I don’t know. The bike has grown, I have grown, we are reaping the fruits of so many years together working at Aprilia, a thousand and one factors have come together, what is happening is so strange and so historic that I have no explanation.”
Some good results that are taking them by storm: “Argentina’s victory gave me wings, made me really believe it, and being on the podium every weekend fighting with the best adds fuel to the fire, that’s what we have to try to maintain “
After the withdrawal of Valentino Rossi and the injury of Marc Márquez, Aleix was asked to ‘sell’ the Catalan GP, to encourage the fans to fill the Circuit.
“We are going to have a brutal show, the weather is spectacular, I know that Marc is not there and I am not going to say that I will try to emulate him, because it is impossible, but I will try to do it well and put on a show. I think people are bored of me winning every year Marc [laughs], so a win by another rider and another bike would be spectacular.”
Finally, Aleix will wear a special helmet this weekend, dedicated to his daughter Mia and as a tribute to the Corall Family association.
“Four years ago my twins, Max and Mia, were born, the girl suffered from severe heart disease and we had a very bad time, Corall Family helped us a lot together with the doctors who operated on her. Elite athletes are a loudspeaker and it is a tribute to my daughter, but above all to the Corall Family who operate on the heart of many children around the world, a job that saves many lives”, he explained in reference to the Cor Barcelona Congenital Heart Association.
