Rivola: "Aleix Espargaro has the biggest balls in MotoGP!"

The Spaniard took Aprilia’s first victory of the season, and second ever in MotoGP, after charging from the twelfth on the grid.

Espargaro stalked Ducati’s reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia for 15 laps before defying rain drops to dive for victory with a few corners to go.

“I always said Aleix is the one with the biggest balls in the paddock!” Rivola told MotoGP.com. “The way he overtook Pecco at the end, in that part of the track, you don’t do that normally. But I’m glad he did it!

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“The race of Aleix was really impressive and the overtake is the picture of his character and how much he wanted to win this race.

“With a different qualifying I think we should have more Aprilias on the podium, but I cannot say I’m disappointed with three Aprilias in the top five.

“We are all very happy. This is our track. I think Aprilia is the best bike here. We were super-fast with Aleix on Friday with almost 0.7s gap to second place. You don’t see that often.

“Today Maverick and Aleix were fastest in terms of lap time and we saw how fast Miguel is when the conditions become tricky.

“It’s a big reward to all the people at Noale who worked hard in the summer break.

“Now we are to a level where you need to find details and we knew there was a small step from the upgrades we brought here, but that can make the difference in the current MotoGP, where finding milliseconds is important.”

Espargaro is now up to sixth in the riders’ world championship, with twelve rounds to go, with Aprilia is third in the constructors’ standings.