A historic result, not only in terms of statistics. The first podium in MotoGP history arrived today in Silverstone at the end of a substantially perfect race by Aleix Espargaró. Aprilia had never before finished this high in the premier four-stroke motorcycle racing category. It was the best interpretation of a 2021 RS-GP that had everything except its christening in a race, after demonstrating exponential growth from the season start. The result is worth even more when we consider the current level of the championship, perhaps unparalleled on the world stage in terms of difficulty, with all the bikes on the grid within a few tenths of one another in every timed session.
It is a result with its roots in Noale, where an entire racing department has been working non-stop since the début year in 2015. With ups and downs but never losing sight of the goal: to take Aprilia to the point of competing with the best in the world, developing their technology on the track and improving step by step.
And, of course, our thoughts turn to Fausto Gresini, part of the Aprilia MotoGP family from the very start and, precisely for this reason, also part of today’s result.
"We’ve come so close. We have almost had it several times and finally we did it! A deserved podium that we’ve worked hard for and I dedicate, first and foremost, to Aprilia. The team has always worked to the utmost during these years. We have overcome difficult times together and now we are reaping the fruits of our labour. On the podium, I thought about Fausto, my family, and all the people who have been close to me. Our growth over the last two years has been extraordinary. We have improved in every aspect, but we needed a podium to lend credence to what we’ve done. I knew we had a chance today. We built our performance throughout all the sessions and I felt good in warm up this morning too. I had a few doubts at the start on tyre choice but in the end, we got it right. I lost a few positions at a certain point but I was able to recover, except on Fabio, who pulled away and created a gap. In the finale, I was struggling a bit with the front, but to compensate, I had good traction and that’s why I didn’t fight Jack in the braking sections, relying instead on crossing the trajectory and exploiting my acceleration. Now we need to celebrate and then get refocused straight away. There are more races coming up where we can be competitive. One podium can’t be enough to make us happy. We want more."
