Aleix Espargaro eased to his and Aprilia’s first ever MotoGP victory after passing Jorge Martin late on in the Argentinean Grand Prix, ending his quest for a first win after 284 races.
Having made a sluggish start from pole the Spaniard was lucky to hang onto second as the field entered Turn 1 behind Martin, the duo quickly managing to build a gap over third-placed Luca Marini in the early laps.
Electing to hang back and save his tyres, Espargaro kept well within range of the Pramac Ducati racer for the bulk of the contest, eventually starting to mount on the pressure as the race entered its final quarter-distance.
He attempted to pass Martin on several occasions into the Turn 4 hairpin that signified the end of the back-straight, though continually out-braked himself as the race approached its final half-a-dozen circulations.
It was a case of third time lucky though as he finally made the move stick as he tasted the lead for the first time, and despite running wide on more than one occasion across the final few laps, Espargaro managed to edge away over the final couple of tours to steam across the line and take the chequered flag for his first ever grand prix win across all classes after 284 total starts.
His success also marks Aprilia’s first ever in the premier class, seven years after the brand returned to top-flight grand prix competition.
Martin thus was forced to make do with second just 0.807s behind, while Suzuki’s Alex Rins picked up third to score his and Suzuki’s first rostrum of the year.
Backing up the two-time premier class winner in fourth was team-mate Joan Mir, with Francesco Bagnaia recovering well from a sub-par qualifying to complete the top five.
Brad Binder also made forward progress to grab sixth for KTM ahead of the other Aprilia piloted by Maverick Vinales, the ex-Yamaha man dropping from fifth to seventh in the closing tours.
Fabio Quartararo was only eighth after making a disastrous start –having fallen as far as 13th in the early laps – while Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini rounded out the top ten.
Marini came home 11th after finding himself unable to sustain the front running pace, while Takaaki Nakagami was top Honda in 12th following an early exit for factory RC213-V pilot Pol Espargaro, who lost the front at Turn 2 while running fourth just past mid-distance.
Jack Miller was a lowly 14th after lacking speed al race, while Raul Fernandez managed to win the battle of the Tech 3 KTM’s in 16th ahead of team-mate Remy Gardner.
Fabio Di Gianantonio saw his race end due to a late crash, while Andrea Dovizioso’s contest never got going after running into technical issues at the start – the other factory M1 of Franco Morbidelli also being forced to retire after hitting problems with his own machine.
