Confirming Aprilia’s superiority in Barcelona, Aleix Espargaro won saturday’s Sprint race of the MotoGP Catalunya GP. It was a clear victory for the Granollers rider, who finished 1.989s ahead.
A strong start from Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who maintained his lead. Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) moved up to second and Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac/Ducati) was third before being overtaken by Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia). Espargaró then overtook Viñales, who lost position to Martin on the third lap.
However, the #89 came off the track and dropped to sixth. That left Viñales back in third and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) in fourth on the doorstep of the podium. Miguel Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team/Aprilia) was recovering from a poor start to finish fifth.
Aleix Espargaro began to press Bagnaia hard, but was unable to overtake. With seven laps to go, the five riders at the front were beginning to form a compact group – foreshadowing a finale of strong emotions. It was six laps before the chequered flag that Aleix Espargaro made the overtake to become the new leader.
Once in front, Aleix Espargaro managed to create a gap to Bagnaia, who in the final laps found himself under pressure from Viñales. The spaniard tried everything he could to take second place, but Bagnaia managed to defend his position to the end. Binder was fourth and Martin overtook Oliveira on the last lap to take fifth.
Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac/Ducati), Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati) and Enea Bastianini (Ducati) completed the scoring positions between seventh and ninth.