{"id":940961,"date":"2022-04-04T12:20:01","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T11:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/?p=940961"},"modified":"2022-04-04T14:33:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T13:33:56","slug":"motogp-2022-what-the-hell-is-going-on-argentine-gp-insight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/motorcycles\/motogp\/motogp-2022-what-the-hell-is-going-on-argentine-gp-insight\/","title":{"rendered":"MotoGP 2022: What the hell is going on? \u2014 Argentine GP insight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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So far this season there have been three different winners from the first three races and nine different riders on the podium at those races, so not one rider has made the top three more than once, which hasn\u2019t happened since 1952, the fourth year of motorcycling\u2019s world championships.<\/p>\n

Plus Aleix Espargar\u00f3<\/a> winning his first grand prix at his 284th attempt, Aprilia<\/a> winning its first premier-class GP in its 20th season of trying and both leading the world championship.<\/p>\n

Aprilia\u2019s first victory is also the fifth in a row by a European manufacturer \u2013 following Ducati\u2019s<\/a> at the last two races of 2021 and the first of 2022 and KTM\u2019s<\/a> in Indonesia two weeks ago. The last time European brands won five consecutive premier-class Grand Prix victories was almost half a century ago, in 1974, when MV Agusta was just about clinging onto its decade-long dominance as the Japanese factories arrived.<\/p>\n

Plus 115-times GP winner Valentino Rossi<\/a> is no longer around, making headlines whatever he does, and six-times MotoGP<\/a> king Marc M\u00e1rquez seems to face an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

Espargar\u00f3 is friendly, happy to talk openly and he races with his heart and with his soul.<\/blockquote>\n

And on top of all that last weekend\u2019s race came really quite close to not happening due to a 35-year-old Jumbo 747 cargo plane breaking down in Mombasa, Kenya.<\/p>\n

Even if we know the main reason for much of the above (MotoGP\u2019s technical regulations which specify a four-cylinder and 81mm bore limit and spec tyres and software, which make all the bikes perform the same) it is impossible not to feel a bit discombobulated by what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Espargar\u00f3’s historic win couldn\u2019t have been more of an emotional, feelgood moment, because the 32-year-old is one of the MotoGP grid\u2019s good guys \u2013 he\u2019s friendly, always happy to talk openly and he races with his heart and with his soul. And he\u2019s such a generous spirit that he would\u2019ve had a much easier ride on Sunday if he hadn\u2019t helped race-long rival Jorge Martin<\/a> make it into MotoGP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super-happy for Aleix,\u201d said Martin, who led the first 20 of 25 laps. \u201cI come from a humble family, so when I was young he gave me a house, bikes to train with and he fed me at his home, so he\u2019s helped me all my career so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"Aleix\n
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Espargar\u00f3 leads Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow in 2019, when he came close to quitting MotoGP<\/p>\n

\n Aprilia\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Espargar\u00f3, who grew up near the Catalunya circuit<\/a>, sitting in the classroom, listening to bikes going around, dreaming of making it in MotoGP, had been waiting for his big day since October 31, 2004, when he made his GP debut at Valencia aboard a Honda RS125. For context, that was the year Valentino Rossi won his first world title with Yamaha.<\/p>\n

No one has waited longer for a GP win and few have taken so much criticism for racing for so long at the highest level without success. But this is the first year the elder Espargar\u00f3 brother has had a fully competitive motorcycle; well, apart from 2008, his second season in 250s, when he had an Aprilia RSA.<\/p>\n

This is Espargar\u00f3\u2019s 13th season in the premier class. He started aboard a Pramac Ducati, when the Desmosedici was at its nastiest, then got relegated to Aprilia CRT machines, with road-bike engines, for the next two years. Then a year-old Yamaha YZR-M1 in 2014 and his first factory contract with Suzuki in 2015 and 2016, the first year of Michelins.<\/p>\n

He lost the GSX-RR ride because he was too slow to adapt to Michelin\u2019s front slick.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I attacked I lost the front: crash, crash, crash,\u201d he told me a while back. \u201cIn the second half of the season I was fast, but it was too late to keep my ride, because everything in this paddock moves super-fast.\u201d<\/p>\n