It was one of the big questions at the conclusion of pre-season testing: how much progress have Aprilia really made? The 5.934 seconds that Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) finished behind Qatar GP winner Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) was the closest the Noale factory has been to a race winner in MotoGP™ history. In comparison to 2020, the closest Espargaro got to a race winner across a full race distance was at the Aragon Grand Prix, where the Spaniard ended 14.598 seconds adrift of Alex Rins. In fact, Sunday’s seventh-place finish and subsequent gap to the race leader is the sixth closest Aprilia has ever finished to a race winner in premier class history. This bike is still quite young and we need information from finishing the races, so it wasn’t the day to risk it.

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