Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro overtook Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia as he closed to within 0.729s of victory in the Qatar MotoGP Sprint.
Aleix Espargaro made his best-ever start to aThe 34-year-old, whose first full MotoGP campaign was in 2010, may have been outgunned off the line - and briefly dropped as low as fifth on lap 7 of 11 - but his Aprilia got stronger as the race went on.
Although Espargaro set the fourth best lap of the race, a 1m 52.255s, on lap 2 of 11, it was his 1m 52.762s on the final lap that caught the eye of his rivals ahead of Sunday’s full-length grand prix. “So I didn’t know what to expect but the bike worked perfectly. I was very strong in the last part of the race. I needed some more laps to catch the two boys in front but I'm pleased with the result.”
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