At Aragón Aprilia takes the best result of the season, with Aleix Espargaró finishing seventh, but close to the leaders, and Andrea Iannone, still suffering with pain in his shoulder after the Misano accident, finishing eleventh.

After the good sessions yesterday that had placed him on the second row, Aleix started off strong, holding onto his position and fending off an attack by Rossi, staying close to the group of top riders battling for podium positions. The battle with Crutchlow for sixth continued all the way to the last lap when Aleix recovered ground, finishing in the Brit’s slipstream but, more importantly, keeping the gap to five and a half seconds behind the second place finisher in a race where the winner – Marquez – was in a race by himself. This is a great result that placed Aleix among the protagonists in the Spanish race and it is an excellent way to head off for the overseas tour.

Throughout the race Andrea had to deal with pain in the left shoulder he injured in Misano. He gritted his teeth and, although having to dose out his strength, he remained consistently in the positions battling for the top ten. He missed it by less than half a second, but after a nice battle where he prevailed over Petrucci precisely on the final lap. The week-long break before flying out to Thailand will be essential for his full physical recovery.

Bradley Smith, in the race with the third RS-GP, finished nineteenth, completing the work he had planned with the Test Team.