When Aleix Espargaro steps off his Aprilia RS-GP for the final time at this weekend’s Barcelona Grand Prix finale, he will be able to look back at a long and ultimately successful MotoGP career that few – including the man himself – are likely to have predicted unfolding the way it did.
In fact, celebrating his career path in grand prix racing as one no rider has traversed before him and probably never will is arguably the greatest tribute one can pay to the 35-year-old.
Set to retire with 255 premier class grand prix starts to his name, in terms of longevity at least, only Valentino Rossi can lay claim to having started more races once Espargaro bids adios to the grind of 23 international events a year.
And – cliché though it may be – if Espargaro’s career was a cheese, it certainly went on to mature into a fine blue. Indeed, with one round still to go, Espargaro will depart having tallied at least three MotoGP victories, plus two Sprint Race wins, 11 podiums and seven pole positions.
Moreover, not just for himself, but that maiden success at the 2022 Argentinian GP will rank as one of the series’ most memorable modern-era successes destined to be raised in fondness long after his final chequered flag.
Granted, while there is some backhanded cynicism to go with the addendum of his first victory coming at the 200th attempt in the premier class, the belatedness also speaks of a rider whose dogged attitude towards development and an ability to rally a team around him succeeded in keeping him on the grid when many more decorated contemporaries came and went.
Espargaro belatedly broke his duck at the 2022 Argentina GP, reaping the rewards of his lengthy relationship with Aprilia
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Espargaro made his 125GP debut in 2004 and ascended to 250GP in 2006 before a full MotoGP debut came in 2009. Save for a season of Moto2 in 2011, he has remained on the MotoGP grid for an impressive 15 years. Indeed, there is some butterfly theory you could apportion to Espargaro being somewhat fortunate that a MotoGP career was even possible at all, even if being in the right place at that right time preceded a lengthy stint in the wrong one.
Grappling for grip on a junior development path that counted the likes of Marco Simoncelli, Alvaro Bautista, Hector Barbera and Hiroshi Aoyama among him in the quarter-litre division, Espargaro’s results in both 125GP and 250GP were solid, if not…
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