The Spaniard – who will start his 200th premier class race on Sunday – was in strong form across the condensed Saturday schedule at Termas de Rio Hondo, leading an Aprilia 1-2 in FP2 before taking pole by 0.151 seconds in qualifying.
It’s Espargaro’s third pole in MotoGP and makes him the first rider in the modern era to top qualifying on three different bikes (Forward Yamaha at Assen 2014, Suzuki at Barcelona in 2015, Aprilia at Rio Hondo in 2022).
Since joining Aprilia in 2017, Espargaro helped drag Aprilia from the back of the grid and feels his Argentina pole is “my present” to the Italian marque for his efforts.
“I’m very happy, especially [I’m] proud of what we are achieving,” Espargaro said on Saturday.
“It’s my sixth season in Aprilia and I know how far we’ve come from, how far we’ve suffered.
“So, to prove at least today that we have been the fastest bike of the world is something that makes me happy.
“It’s not super important because the points will come [in the race], but for a rider to feel this speed, to feel that you are the fastest one is always great.
“And it’s the first one for Aprilia, it’s a very nice moment. So, I would like to dedicate this to everyone in the MotoGP project – not just on track, but also at Noale.
“I’m very happy and this is my present for everyone at Aprilia.”
Espargaro’s race pace is amongst the strongest for Sunday’s 25-lap grand prix, but he says he must keep his “feet on the ground” when asked if he can fight for his first MotoGP win today.
“I mean, especially the bike with the hard front tyre I felt extremely good today,” he added.
“I can brake late and I can maintain a very high corner speed. So, the bike worked extremely good.
“The race pace is quite strong, but [we need to keep our] feet on the ground. It’s just Saturday and it’s a special GP because there’s been just one day of practice.
“We have a lot of things to analyse and warm-up is longer. The pole position is an extra boost of confidence for myself and in the race I will try my best.
“I just need to push from one lap, the tyre consumption is quite good and the pace is quite strong. So I just need to be as relaxed as possible and do my best.”
Teammate Maverick Vinales bolstered Aprilia’s strong Saturday by qualifying fifth – his best grid slot with the marque.
Having made a breakthrough with bike set-up and his feeling on the front-end during warm-up in Indonesia last time out, Vinales carried that on into Argentina and feels he can be happy whatever happens in the race.
“Well, I have to say that especially we made a big step in Mandalika warm-up and the good thing is I found the same feeling from the first lap [in Argentina], even if the grip was very low at the beginning of FP1, I felt the same [as in Indonesia] in the front,” he said.
“So it was very important to keep that feeling in the front.
“So, for sure we made a step forward and overall, I felt very good with the bike.
“One lap we still need to work, it’s very difficult for me because I need to more feeling, I need more confidence, I need to push more on the limit and still I don’t have that.
“But I was very happy with the rhythm so I’m very enthusiastic for tomorrow.
“We know it can be a good race, but even if it’s a bad race I’m very happy because we are doing steps forward and this is just the base, and what I’m happy with is if this is just the pace we are there. So, very happy honestly.”
