MotoGP: Aleix Espargaro announced his retirement at the Catalan Grand Prix

The Spaniard from Aprilia announced that he will leave the activity at the end of 2024 amid excitement and greetings from all his colleagues.

Aleix Espargaro couldn’t have chosen a better place in the world to announce his retirement from MotoGP: the Circuit de Catalunya. Where, as a child, he began to realize his dream of one day becoming a motorcycle racer. There, where he finally managed to take his first steps in activity. There he sat alone in a chair in front of the press, his colleagues and family and announced: “This is a special place for me, where I grew up since childhood, and this is the ideal place to say that I have decided to give up motorcycles,” said the Aprilia driver.

Espargaro, Paul’s older brother, is also a racer and today works as a tester for KTM and GasGas. It made its World Championship debut in 2004 in the old 125cc category, today renamed Moto3. After coming through the 250cc, Granollers’ representative moved to MotoGP for the 2009 Indianapolis Grand Prix, replacing Mika Kallio.

. In 2011 he moved to Moto2, and since 2012 he has been a full-fledged rider in the top category of the world championship. He arrived at Aprilia in 2017 and has had the great pleasure of scoring three victories, most notably at the 2022 Argentine Grand Prix. Last year he celebrated victory in Great Britain before realizing his dream: he won in Catalunya.

“Not even the best screenwriter in Hollywood could have imagined that he could win races at the age of 30 and stand on podiums with a brand that had never achieved it.”

. Surely that child who made his debut here many years ago would be happy. I have made many mistakes in my life, choosing with my heart and not with my head. My head tells me I can continue, I’m still fast and competitive. But my heart asks me to stop, spend more time at home, watch my children grow, be with my wife. So I decided to take a step aside. I thank Aprilia for this dream realized over the years, my children, my family, my brother who has always been…” Aleix said before breaking down in tears.

In a few minutes, The entire paddock gathered to hug and greet Espargaro in front of his wife Laura and children, twins Max and Mia.. The announcement of the sixth date of the World Cup was supposed to revolve around the fight in the table, headed by Jorge Martin, who is 38 points ahead of Pecco Bagnaia, 40 points ahead of Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini. The novel should have added chapters that mention Ducati and its second factory bike for 2025, with Martin, Mark and the Beast being candidates to take its place, as well as the Indian Grand Prix situation. But everything suddenly changed after Alex’s statement.