An excellent race at the GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix in Germany saw Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) ride his Aprilia RS-GP to a 7th place finish. With this strong result, the Spaniard closes out a weekend where he was consistently among the MotoGP™ protagonists. Starting from the third row, with the eighth best time in qualifying, Espargaró quickly moved in and kept pace with a group of riders battling for the top five. In this stage of the race he fought fearlessly with some of the Championship leaders. The Spanish rider was well supported by his RS-GP, which once again confirms the great progress that the Aprilia MotoGP™ project has demonstrated in the first half of the season.
After a few failed assaults, Espargaró clinched his final pass at the end of the penultimate lap, overtaking Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) to finish with a neat seventh place. The fifth best lap time for the race was set by Espargaró (1’21.981), adding an extra element of satisfaction to a result which sends the entire Aprilia Racing Team Gresini into the summer break with a smile.
Aleix Espargaró, P7: "A good result, but to be honest I expected something even more. With the exception of Jonas and Marc, who did an extraordinary race, I thought that I could have been closer to the podium. Unfortunately, at the beginning I had to force a lot to overtake, stressing the front tyre and losing a few tenths. In any case, it was a positive weekend for us. We are progressing step by step. Staying with the strongest riders for almost the entire race is positive. Now I am thinking about relaxing during the break and being ready when we turn up at Brno."