MotoGP Portimao: Espargaro ‘old but still brave!’

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro added a front row start to his 2022 MotoGP success story after securing third at Portimao on Saturday afternoon.

The premier class was met with treacherous conditions as qualifying got underway, the morning’s heavy rain subsiding to leave a cold and patchy track. Multiple crashes across Q1 warned the top ten what awaited them, with Espargaro tentatively navigating the 4.6km track in the opening minutes.

As his confidence grew, so did his pace, with the Spaniard setting a 1’42.235 on his final effort to round out the front row celebrations ahead of Sunday’s 25-lap race.

“I’m very happy,” Espargaro confirmed from the qualifying press conference. “Has been a difficult weekend. I was out of top ten so I knew was difficult and at the last moment I managed to put myself in the Q2, so it was good.

“Super great because if not, today the most difficult session without any doubt has been the Q1. Finally with the slick I felt very good, very strong, sincerely, The first three/four laps were difficult. You have to be very, very focused to avoid any stupid mistake because we knew clearly that the track was improving lap by lap. So the most important thing was to stay on the bike till the last five minutes and then risk.

“I’m happy, I felt very strong on dry conditions I reconfirmed that the bike is looking good this year so it’s important to start in the first row. Tomorrow’s race is gonna be a lot easier for us and hopefully it’s not going to rain and we can have a good show.”

With Espargaro out front, his championship rivals had opposing fortunes with Enea Bastianini and Alex Rins lining up in 18th and 23rd respectively.

“It’s not super important to lead the championship because it’s still super early, but