It was “the worst day” in Aleix’s sports career and at the same time, the end of a historic streak that the Spanish riders within MotoGP had built over the years. The queen category had been closing the course with one of ours on the final podium in the last fifteen seasons, but that feat will begin to count from zero from next year after a closing in which the driver from Granollers lost the last step of the podium in the final appointment of the calendar. Valencia not only decided the champion of the maximum displacement, but also the positions of a drawer that Bagnaia, Quartararo and Bastianini shared in that order, after a mechanical failure on Espargaró’s Aprilia that changed the final script.
The last part of the season ended up being a series of mistakes and problems for the Italian bike. Aleix is clear that if they had replicated the first half of the course from Noale they would have reached Valencia with title options, but human errors, wrong maps and a host of mistakes left them only with the possibility of playing for a bronze that seemed to have been done before the asian tour. A milestone that already seemed historic within the Italian factory. The difference between the man from Granollers and Bastianini, his direct rival for that place, was established at 31 points after the visit to MotorLand and in a year where it seemed that the world championship podium was made, Japan, Thailand, Australia and Malaysia decided on a destiny that began to get complicated from that moment on.
The reliability problem in Aleix’s engine, who said enough on the fourth lap with the whole race ahead of him, was the final culmination of a drift by Aprilia in the second half of the course that ended up frustrating Noale’s house by just seven points. Bastianini beat the RS-GP by the minimum (He added 219 to Espargaró’s 212) and then Montmeló’s mistake hurt more than ever. When it happened last June, the pilot hoped that this ruling would not decide the championship and although it was not that detail that got him out of the fight for the title, since Aleix was left out before arriving in Valencia due to the lack of evolution that was evident in the Italian team, did deprive him of a bronze that for the Catalan was “a dream”.
2006, with Pedrosa, the last precedent
“It has been a very disappointing end to the season” within the Italian factory and, at the same time, the point is already part of a time full of successes for the Spanish in the premier class that has been interrupted, among other things, due to the absence of Márquez, the difficulties of Honda or the irregularity in Suzuki caused by the instability that caused his departure. We would have to go back to 2006, the course in which Hayden won his championship title, to not witness any of ours on the final podium of the maximum displacement. Then the American, Rossi and Loris Capirossi dominated the category with Dani Pedrosa (5th) as the best of our representatives. And although on this occasion Aleix’s result is even more competitive than that of the three-time champion, the result is much more painful not because of the proximity, but because of the frustration of throwing away the work of an entire season than at the beginning, It was like a kind of reward for all the effort put in by the rider from Granollers.
Aleix himself is convinced that this 2022 has been the best season of his life, Well, he was blunt when it came to speaking out when he was asked what he should improve to fight for the title again next year. “I’m nothing”, declared the man from Granollers, still with confidence towards a team like Aprilia that lacked a bit of effort to accompany its rider on this ambitious adventure. Despite this, Espargaró is clear that they have “made a historic, very good year”, hand in hand. Doing count they have “won a race, made podiums and pole positions”, bringing out some data that in a certain way leave him satisfied, but that in the face of ambition are insufficient. They have gone from celebrating a podium (the third of 2021 at Silverstone) as if it were a World Cup, to the anger typical of champions when they give up an opportunity like this. And now that they have discovered what that feeling tastes like, all that remains is to “improve the bike” if they want to fight for victories again and whatever comes next, starting next year. Although there are times when the train only passes once…
