THREE MONTHS AGO ALEIX Espargaró rode his Aprilia RS-GP to the company’s first MotoGP victory in four decades of trying, at the Argentine Grand Prix at Termas de Rio Hondo.
The success was the crowning chapter of a long story for the Italian manufacturer that began at the 1994 Spanish GP, where Aprilia debuted its first premier-class motorcycle.
Since then Aprilia, based in Noale near Venice, has been MotoGP’s perennial underdog, often finishing at the bottom of the constructors’ championship, including a clean sweep of last positions from 2016 to 2021.
That first MotoGP
