The Spanish Aleix Espargaró achieved the third pole position of his sports career and the first on the Aprilia RS-GP being the fastest in the official classification for the Argentine Grand Prix of MotoGP in the Termas de Río Hondo circuit.
Espargaro It was already the fastest in training in 2014 with a Yamaha from the Forward team in the Assen race, and in 2015 as an official Suzuki rider in Montmeló, but on this occasion he has given the manufacturer Aprilia from the Italian town of Noale its first best classification in the MotoGP era, Well, with the two-stroke motorcycles they achieved the first position in practice with the British Jeremy McWilliams in 2000.
The Aprilia rider had to defend his position from the attacks of his compatriot and friend Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), whom he ended up beating by 151 thousandths of a second with a time of 1:37.688. The only ones who rolled in that second in the official classification.
The second MotoGP practice session had a first protagonist in the fall of the Australian Remy Gardner (KTM RC 16), with Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) as the first to lower his personal time but still eighteenth and therefore far from the second direct classification, a situation that was soon corrected because a couple of laps later he was eighth and was in the privilege classification.
By then many pilots had already improved, in particular the Spanish Aleix Espargaró, who by improving his time by about three tenths of a second (1:38.956) climbed to first position, with 72 thousandths of a second ahead of the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami, who had a hard time beating his morning record. Aleix Espargaró’s exceptional performance was joined by his teammate, also a Spaniard Maverick Viñaleswho came second with 1:38.999only 43 thousandths of a second that propelled the pilots of the Noale manufacturer to win the first two places in the classification of these free seconds.
Viñales had his share of prominence entering the last twenty minutes, when he clocked 1:38.544 to move up to first position and endorse his own teammate for half a second, who did not take long to respond because two laps later he regained the first square when rolling in 1:38.244.
something further back, Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) crashed in the rush of braking on the finish straight, where more than 280 km/h are reached, although the rider quickly recovered from the mishap and ran to his workshop in search of his second motorcycle. Like Pol Espargaró, the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16) also had to run after his second motorcycle, in his case with an engine problem that practically at the entrance to the workshop street began to emit intense white smoke that forced him to stop immediately.
The Aprilia riders successfully completed their best practice performance and that of the Noale brand, and moved into second place as the two fastest MotoGP riders, ahead of Jack Miller (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), Fabio Quartararo, Brad Binder, the two Suzuki GSX RR riders, Alex Rins and Joan Mir, behind him, and with Jorge Martín, Johann Zarco and Luca Marini, all of them with Ducati Desmosedici, in the rest of the positions among the top ten.
Not a single Honda was able to make it to the second classification, with illustrious names such as Miguel Oliveira, winner in Indonesia, ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, Takaaki Nakagami, who arrived with his negative covid test still under his arm, Pol Espargaró , Alex Márquez (Honda RC 213 V) or Raúl Fernández (KTM RC 16).
The 2021 world runner-up suffered, ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, who was seen in the last position until three minutes from the end, when he set the best time in the first classification, 1:38.610, but was beaten by the Japanese Nakagami by 87 thousandths of a second, who was later overtaken by the Repsol Honda rider, Pol Espargaró, who in extremis and despite After a fall, he managed to get into the second classification. The Ducati of ‘The Beast’ Bastianini, world leader, and Bagnaia, were left out of the second classification and the two Honda entered, who were not represented in that second classification.
Maverick Viñales came out plugged in the second classification and already in his second lap he was the leader with 1:38.880, but the Ducati of Jorge Martín was flying towards the lead1:38.425, more than four tenths faster than the Aprilia rider, but on the track was also the other Aprilia rider, Aleix Espargaró, who climbed to first position with a time of 1:38.108 while the Australian Jack Miller destroyed one of his Ducati in turn one of the track.
The final minutes were very intense with the protagonism of Jorge Martín and Alex Espargaró, with Luca Marini who at the last second got into the first row and relegated Pol Espargaró to the second, a line in which Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo, with Alex Rins (SUzuki GSX RR), Joan Mir (Suzuki GSX RR) and Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22).
