Not sure how many of you watch MotoGP, but hopefully some of you will have been as delighted as I was to cheer Aleix Espargaró to his, and Aprilia's, first MotoGP win. Even the ever-flaky Vignales managed a 5th place.

The Aprilia does look pretty strong this year - a 4th place at Qatar was only 2.2second off the winner. Indonesia was so wet it's not really a good measure of anything other than who has the biggest cojones, so a 9th wasn't too bad.

My take on the season, as a non-racer, with no real knowledge, is that Yamaha need to get their act together pretty quickly if they want to retain Quartarero - I could see him taking a factory Ducati (Miller has to be under pressure to retain a seat) or Honda (time to cut Marquez loose I reckon) seat.

Aprilia do need to look to the future and pick up a Darryn Binder or a Marco Bezzecchi to pair with Aspargaro - Vignales is too over-sensitive to ever get anywhere meaningful.

mrs was in her official Aprilia Team shirt really really please i was in the stands at the stone when he got 3rd and i was giddy when he pulled that move on our aussi mate,

Fantastic result  for aleix and aprilia, 

I watched the podium at Silverstone last year 

That was huge , and well this is

 huger .....lol , if you haven't already seen it 

On amazon prime  moto gp unlimited 

Great insight  behind the scenes 

Deffo a binge watch  

Silverstone was great , they are a passionate bunch 

Another great race for Espargaró in Spain, with a third place. And another waste of fuel and tyres for Vignales with a typically hopeless performance.

I wonder whether Dovi regrets not going for the seat at Aprilia, as he was able to ride it a lot better than he can the Yamaha?

Mir and Rins need a job and perhaps Zarco and Miller too. Vinales will most likely be dropped and all of those will be prepared to take what they can after that dropped bombshell at start of the season. 

Other thing that may happen is there is now a satellite team place for another manufacturer. Aprilia being mentioned in many circles to fill that void. 

Suzuki leaving is a real shame - their bike looks good this year and Rins had an amazing performance in Portugal.

Dorna need to do something to keep them and attract other manufacturers - we already have so many Ducatis on the grid that it's starting to look like a one-make series on occassion.

Another third place for Espargar, and nowhere for Vinales. Espargaró is now only 4 points off the lead of the championship!

Not sure where that info came from as I just looked and Suzuki’s debt is not that bad. Much lower now than 5 or 6 years ago and their assets have risen sharply reducing their debt to equity ratio to the level it has been generally in recent history. 

Their withdrawal has much to do with their lack of belief that racing success translates into sales. Based on the fact their only real super sports bike is out dated and 90% ( guess ) of global bike sales are not sports bikes. 

Aprilia’s rise has much to do with concessions to low performing factories, re testing and in season changes. KTM rose similarly until they had success and lost concessions and now they have slipped back to mid pack. The test for Aprilia will be whether they can sustain the level when they have to play by the same rules as the rest. Historically Aprilia have put all of their eggs in the no1 rider basket and n2 gets the cast offs so Mav may not be playing with the same toys as Espo. 

sorted 

i think its a lot worse than that, im not an expert on the subject but im pretty sure they have withdrawn from the US market all together, again i don't know, just what pops up on google.

Suzuki have stopped selling cars in the US nearly 10 years ago I believe. They only produce small hatchbacks and little jeeps which have never gained traction in the US market.  Bikes are not affected, it’s their biggest market outside of Asia. PSA don’t sell their either.

Suzuki motors debt. Note the ratio is on a downward trend

The good news is that they've resigned Espargaró for the next two years. The bad news is that they've also signed Vignales for another two years - what a waste of a bike.

Poor guy must have wanted the ground to open up beneath him.

Such a shame , and he was clearly devastated. But, that aside, another really strong performance from him.

Up to that point, he'd ridden a good race. He's not the first to make that mistake, and he won't be the last.

If you can find a broadcast of today's MotoGP, I thoroughly recommend watching it - probably one of the best races I've ever seen.