It may have been Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) taking home maximum points from the Portuguese GP, but a couple of Noale factory riders made sure we were all aware of the threat they possess in 2023.
Most notably Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing). After contact with Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) at Turn 5 in the early stages, the Tissot Sprint became a damage limitation job for ‘Top Gun’. For most of the Sprint Viñales was the fastest rider on track, as he and teammate Aleix Espargaro bridged the gap to the lead group to eventually finish P5 and P6.
“We had the pace to win” the Sprint admitted Viñales both on Saturday afternoon to motogp.com’s Elliott York, and again on Sunday afternoon to Matt Birt in After The Flag. Then in the Grand Prix race, after the incident involving Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), Miguel Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP™ Team), Viñales became Bagnaia’s main threat. In truth, the only threat, with Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) a couple of seconds further down the road in P3. The gap over the line between Bagnaia and Viñales was a slender 0.6s, as the latter narrowly missed out on a maiden victory with Aprilia.
“I’m really proud of Aprilia and all my crew, they worked really hard all weekend. A real shame for the Sprint because I think we had the pace to win it,” said Viñales. “Anyway, the real race was today, I’m happy, I tried to put Pecco under pressure, a few laps to push, push, push, two or three qualifying laps but he made no mistakes and he was really good, so congratulations to them.
“[I’m] just working. Working, working, working, fighting at the front and if we take the maximum out of our Aprilia every weekend, we will be there.”
And he was there. A real thorn in the reigning World Champion’s side, as Viñales heads to Argentina second in the World Championship, 12 points shy of Pecco. Termas de Rio Hondo will bring back precious memories for Aprilia after Aleix Espargaro’s historic debut win last year. Both Viñales and Espargaro will land in Termas full of confidence knowing that a repeat performance is on the cards.
Despite leaving Portimao with 11 points, the #41 was pleased with how Round 1 went overall. The positions won’t have been pleasing, but the pace was promising. Espargaro set the fastest lap of the race on Sunday afternoon, while the Spaniard had to settle for P9 after losing out in the battle for P4. So what hampered Espargaro the most in Portugal? Qualifying.
“It was my fault. I didn't start the weekend in the best way by crashing in qualifying, that was for the first problem,” admitted Espargaro, who had to fight his way through the pack from P12 on the grid.
“In the second lap, Brad [Binder] hit me so that pushed me wide and I lost a lot of positions. Then I had a good pace, coming back quite quickly and setting the fastest lap of the race but I couldn't overtake so I finished ninth. But it's race one, it's okay. We'll keep going,” continued Espargaro.
“When you have the speed and you're not able to put everything together to get the points you thought were possible then you have to be angry. The most difficult thing in MotoGP is to be fast and have the speed. I did the fastest lap of the race but I finished ninth, which is a disaster, so that's why I was frustrated after the race.”
However, Espargaro is convinced this is just the beginning for himself and Aprilia in 2023. After a trickier-than-expected pre-season, which ended with Espargaro undergoing surgery to fix a fibrosis problem, it seems Aprilia have still got their pre-summer 2022 mojo – and a little more.
“I honestly feel better now than I did ahead of this first race. Our pre-season wasn't brilliant but in almost every session I was at the top, I did the fastest lap of the race, I made a good comeback in the Sprint, so I'm happy. I feel good with the bike. This is just the beginning, there are still a lot of races, a lot of weeks and months travelling the world ahead of us. Hopefully, everybody relaxes and breathes a bit, so we can reduce the tension a little bit.”
There’s no doubt Aprilia’s duo are ready to mount a title tilt in 2023. Expect them to be right up the sharp in Argentina and beyond.