Whenever an ‘exceptional press conference’ is quickly ushered into the MotoGP weekend schedule for a single rider, it usually means only one thing: retirement.
Growing up in nearby Granollers, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya seemed like the perfect place for 34-year-old Aleix Espargaro to begin winding down a MotoGP career that began in 2004 with a 24th-place finish in the 125cc Valencia Grand Prix on a Honda. It’s a venue which the Espargaro brothers (Aleix two years older than Pol) could hear buzzing with life from their school classes when they were kids; where Aleix scored a maiden GP podium in Moto2 in 2011; where he took Suzuki’s first pole of its return in 2015, and where he scored Aprilia’s first 1-2 in MotoGP in 2023.
