Aleix Espargaró returns to the stage of Aprilia’s irruption

Five full weeks without competition go a long way, to rest, to meditate on what has been achieved in the first eleven weekends, to recover the body… And the latter was the most important thing for Pedro Acosta. The last Moto3 champion and current Moto2 rider suffered a complicated fracture in the femur of his left leg before the Dutch Grand Prix, the last appointment before the summer break, proof that, obviously, he missed. So he could count on six full weeks until the return of the Motorcycle World Championship in August, this very Friday, in England, to return to action.

This Thursday he passed the pertinent medical examination at the Silverstone circuit, although without receiving the go-ahead, something that will have to wait for a final test that will be carried out this Friday first thing in the morning with which the doctors will seek to resolve the doubts left by the X-ray presented by the pilot. Be that as it may, right now Acosta is not one of those who is playing for the title, the battle that begins its crucial stretch in the three displacements. In Moto2 with four riders in 30 points (Arón Canet is fourth), although above all with the first three separated by only one point (Celestino Vietti and Augusto Fernández with 146 and Ai Ogura with 145). In Moto3 with Sergio García and Izan Guevara, teammates, in three; and in MotoGP with Aleix Espargaró, 21 behind Fabio Quartararo, a fight that still includes fourth overall, Pecco Bagnaia, who is 66 behind the leader but has just won the last race at Assen at a time when that every Sunday shows potential to fight for victory.

“It cannot fail again, if it fails again, one hundred percent sure that it will not arrive,” Espargaró analyzed this Thursday, who does grant options to the Italian from Ducati. “But if he doesn’t fail and starts winning races, anything can happen, although obviously it won’t be easy because in the end it doesn’t depend on him either. Because if Quartararo and I are stable and continue fighting for the podiums, even if he wins, cutting 60 points will be very difficult », he acknowledged.

All this before the start of the first of the nine battles that remain in this 2022, on a track, Silverstone, which has seen seven different winners in its last seven races (Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Márquez, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales, Andrea Dovizioso , Álex Rins and Quartararo), the last of them the current leader on the day Espargaró got the first podium for his brand, Aprilia, in MotoGP.

Sanction to Quartararo

“I have the feeling that last year Fabio took a walk, but if last year I managed to be so far ahead with the 2021 bike, I think that with the 2022 I will take a very big step”, pointed out the Spaniard, who starred in a huge comeback in the Assen’s last race, after being knocked out by Quartararo. An action that will lead to a penalty that the Frenchman will have to serve on Sunday: he will have to complete a long lap penalty during the first three laps.

“Of course the sanction is important, but it is not the last race of the season or the last fight,” the MotoGP leader consoled himself. «I don’t have to go crazy, I have to do the ‘long lap’ as fast as possible, but I don’t have to win no matter what. The first part of the holidays I have been a bit obsessed with how to do the long lap as fast as possible, but that can lead you to make a mistake, so I prefer to lose a couple of tenths and make sure I finish the race» , pointed out Quartararo.

It will be this Friday when he can test how much time can be lost in that cast, although it is estimated that it will not be much more than a second. A loss that should not be very important for the last winner at Silverstone. Although it will be more important to manage the psychological part of knowing that if faced badly, it could be decisive in a potentially favorable scenario for his rival. With an improved bike since 2021, as has been seen in this course, with the latest benchmark from Assen and the performance of Espargaró himself plus the first podium of his teammate Maverick Viñales. Elements that raise the interest of a weekend that can be decisive to know if the fight for the title of the queen category is maintained.