up the inside at turn one,
finally making the pass stick
after Espargaro himself ran
wide. The Spaniard would
eventually come home fourth,
2.4 seconds up on the impres-
sive Luca Marini, who is really
starting to come to grips with
the Ducati GP22.
Jorge Martin got the better
of a three-rider battle between
himself, Red Bull KTM's Brad
Binder and Gresini Ducati's
Fabio Di Giannantonio for
sixth, with Miguel Oliveira (Red
Bull KTM) and 2022 triple race
victor Enea Bastianini rounding
out the top 10 on the second
Gresini Ducati.
Quartararo is now sitting
very pretty in the champion-
ship at 172 points, 34 points
ahead of Espargaro and 61
points clear of Zarco, who
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 25 JUNE 21, 2022 P81
WHO GETS THE
APRILIA SEATS?
The rumor mill went into overdrive in
Germany regarding rider movements for
2023. Up to six names have been linked
to the RNF Aprilia seats, including Miguel
Oliveira, whose reported move to Gresini
hit a snag over his personal sponsor,
Hyundai, and Ducati, which is owned by
Audi. Alex Rins, Raul Fernandez, Remy
Gardner, Darryn Binder and Celestino
Vietti were also mentioned as possible
signings to Aprilia's new satellite team.
"There are so many riders in the market
right now, we can afford to wait," said
team owner Razlan Razali. "We will stick
to a combination of a young rider and an
experienced rider." The Malaysian then
went on to rule out signing a rider outside
MotoGP. "There are a couple of young
riders [of interest] in MotoGP like Darryn
Binder, so there is no point looking at
Moto2 riders," he said.
MILLER EXPLAINS
KTM SWITCH
Thursday was Jack Miller's first interac-
tion with the media since his switch
to KTM for 2023 was confirmed. The
Australian cited his good relations with
Aki Ajo, his personal manager and
mainstay at the Austrian factory, and
Team Manager Francesco Guidotti—for-
merly Miller's head at Pramac Ducati—as
key to the move. "You don't have to be
a mind-reader to work out that I have a
good relationship over there with Aki be-
ing my manager and Francesco. Going
back there the decision was influenced
by knowing the structure over there and
with Francesco. I was weighing up my
options and at my age I've done a lot,
but I still have a lot to give. There was
a lot that went into it." The 27-year-old
also mentioned the lure of a two-year
contract as a reason. At Ducati, he has
only ever had one-year deals.
Briefly...
Aleix Espargaro
defended for all his
might but Jack Miller
(43) eventually found
a way through.
