MotoGP Jerez: Espargaro loses Aprilia concessions - ‘Now it’s real!’

Aleix Espargaro secured a third podium with the RS-GP in Sunday’s Spanish GP as the Aprilia project went from strength to strength.

Celebrating in front of his home fans at the Jerez Circuit - Angel Nieto, a first for the 32-year-old, Espargaro was both delighted and dazed by his current run of form after battling both Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Ducati’s Jack Miller to the final spot on the MotoGP rostrum.

“I will not wake up till Valencia!” Espargaro said with a massive smile after the Spanish celebrations died down. “I start dreaming in Qatar and I will try to keep the feet on the ground but it’s real, it’s real! We’re doing a great job.

“We have to know that for the moment the feeling that I have - especially with Fabio [Quartararo] we don’t really have his speed - we are missing something, not so much. Because today I think that if I was not stuck behind Marc and Jack I was very close to them but I missed something. So the key will be this year the consistency, make no mistakes, be there.”

Third place on Sunday afternoon sealed the deal as the Noale factory lost its concession status and provided a welcome boost to Espargaro’s title challenge, with the Aprilia man now firmly in second on 82 points, just seven behind the defending champion.

“We did almost 33% of the championship and we are just seven points behind him so we are doing a great job,” he continued.

“I’m very happy because this race was very, very special for me. I race since I was a kid here in Jerez and I never finished on the podium, so to achieve it in MotoGP, it’s just crazy.”

While his late race pace showed front running promise, Espargaro spent the majority of the contest behind Marquez and Miller after recovering from another poor release off