The Spaniard marked an emotional victory for the first time in his 200 MotoGP journey. On the other hand, Aprilia, Suzuki, and Ducati get the podiums.
Aleix Espargaro secured his position as the winner of the Grand Prix race for the first time in his career. He acquired this position after transforming his pole position into a dream victory at the Gran Premio Michelin® de la República in Argentina. Moreover, Aprilia is going to witness an impressive fight for victory in Thermes de Rio Hondo, with Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) crossing the P2 streak within a second of P1 to win the first-class race and the world championship.
In this Sunday’s race, we also experienced Alex Rins's incredible victory in the P3 race and even took the podium for the first time in his racing career.
Aleix Espargaro and Aprilia: From The Weak To The Strong Dogs
For the first time since 2019, Martin was out of the spotlight in Argentina but came with the flying colors from the middle of the front row. The Pramac Star acquired the holeshot, and Pol Espargaro began racing from the second row in P3, behind Pole Sitter and Alex Espargaro, his big brother.
Then we began witnessing a clear stretch between Martin and Aleix Espargaro. Their distance was increased by a second, and soon they started their battle with Luca Marini while the entire host of riders sat in a row.
One Pramac Racing Ducati set the fastest lap in the race while the other crashed on turn two. Martin, along with Zarco was in front of Aleix Espargaro by point four seconds to win this race. On the other hand, they were two seconds ahead of Pol and Rins. Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was now P5 ahead of Marini and Marini was in turn closer to Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing), Bagnaia, and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).
On lap 10 of 25, Aleix Espargaro went too far on turn one and lost 0.4 seconds, and the Aprilia as he ran too far on turn 5. Martin's lead was just over a second with 15 laps left. Fastest lap in the Grand Prix - 1:39:375, 0.4 seconds faster than Martin.
When only 11 laps left, Pol Espargaro crashed without damage on Turn 2 while running for P4. However, he could keep a two-second pull in the air if he wants to fight his teammate Rins for second for the last podium spot. Alex Espargaro is regrouped and is now back where he was before the double-fault. Martin whispered 0.3 seconds behind the GP22.
The first movement was witnessed when there were eight laps left. For a moment, we saw Aleix Espargaro come out of the draft. However, he was facing difficulties in holding the RS-GP at its peak as he was hard on the anchors. Rins was finding it arduous too. At this point in time, we saw Suzuki man was only on point three seconds behind the leading pair with only seven laps left.
After a lap, everything was the same in Turn 5. Espargaro, who has some pace in Martin’s pocket, is yet to find his passage. But, by the third attempt of this turn, Espargaro passed with flying colors. Now, he and Aprilia are leading the spot.
When three more laps are left, Espargaro and Rins are still leading Martin by point eight seconds. Later, there was a point two seconds difference between the top two.
While moving on to the last lap, Espargaro secured point six seconds as his breathing space. No. 41 and Aprilia, a monumental giant lap towards the 4.8km asphalt, was everything that separated him from his dream debut victory. The three corners left for Espargaro gradually became two. He safely completed Turn 13 and secured its position for the first time, giving Aprilia their first primer class victory. There was a feeling of emotion, relief, and commotion.
Stories That Still Need To Be Delivered
Lastly, Mir was seen behind his teammate Rennes by point five seconds, thereby providing Suzuki riders a good result. We also witnessed Pecco making a great comeback after losing in the second quarter. The Italians finished ahead of Binder and Viñales in the Top 5 battles. Quartaro took the single P8 in a tough match against the French when El Diablo finished the day 2.4 seconds earlier than rookie star Marco Bezuki (Moony VR46) (Italy's defeated compatriots Bastianini and Marini). He had a great victory. Tierney abandoned the championship lead on P10 and made a mistake on turn five, giving the "Beast" a chance to get better results, but Marini dropped out of first place in the middle of the match.
Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) beat Oliveira in P12 and P13 respectively, Jack Miller (Team Ducati Lenovo) made no progress on Sunday afternoon and made up P14, and Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol) crossed the finish line on P15.
Although we had to wait a little longer than expected, Argentina succeeded in organizing the race. Aprilia and Alex Spargaro lead the World Championships after a stunning weekend at the Red Bull Grand Prix Of The Americas, where nine different riders took the podium in the first three races in 2022.
The top ten winners of this race are:
- Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing)
- Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) +0.807
- Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) +1.330
- Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) +1.831
- Francesco Bagnaia Ducati (Ducati Lenovo Team) +5.840
- Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) + 6.192
- Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) + 6.540
- Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) + 10.215
- Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) + 12.622
- Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) + 12.987