The Aprilia RS-GP is the name of the series of

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

Prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

Motorcycles developed by

Aprilia Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded immediately after World War II in Noale, Italy, by Alberto Beggio. The company started as a manufacturer of bicycles and moved on to manufacture scooters and small-capacity motorcycles. ...

to compete in the

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

World Championship, starting from 2015 season.

History

For

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, Aprilia returned to the world championship supplying Aprilia Racing Team Gresini with two bikes for riders

Álvaro Bautista Álvaro Bautista Arce (born 21 November 1984) is a Spanish motorcycle road racer. He won the 2022 Superbike World Championship, with Ducati factory team. After the 2019 World Superbike season with the factory Ducati team, for 2020 and 2021 h ...

and

Marco Melandri Marco Melandri (born 7 August 1982) is an Italian retired motorcycle road racer who is a five-time premier class race winner. He is the 2002 250 cc World Champion and runner-up in 125 cc, MotoGP and Superbike World Championship. He c ...

, who made a comeback since he last competed in the premier class back in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. For

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, Aprilia stayed in MotoGP but this time the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Moto2 World Champion, Stefan Bradl, joined the Aprilia squad, having competed with the team from 2015 Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix onward. On March 26, 2017, the RS-GP achieved its best result yet, having finished in 6th place in the

2017 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix The 2017 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 2017 MotoGP season. It was held at the Losail International Circuit in Doha on 26 March 2017. For all the three classes, the starting grid was formed by each rider's best time from a ...

with

Aleix Espargaró Aleix Espargaró Villà (born 30 July 1989) is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He was thSpanish 2004 FIM CEV 125cc International Champion and currently competes in the MotoGP class for Aprilia Racing team. Career Espargaró was bo ...

after starting the race from 15 on the grid, the same feat occurred in 2018 at Aragon when Aleix Espargaró achieved another P6 result. During the 2021 season, the RS-GP saw major improvements and results primarily by Aleix Espargaró as opposed to the results in 2018 through to 2020. The RS-GP once again achieved 2 more P6 finishes in Portimão and Jerez by Aleix Espargaró once again and saw consistent top 10 finishes by Espargaró while former test rider Lorenzo Savadori who was promoted after Bradley Smith left, only saw his personal best results within the top 15 with 2 15th-place finishes and a 14th-place finish. The RS-GP also achieved its best Qualifying result within the top 3 in the MotoGP era with Aleix Espargaró starting 3rd behind Fabio Quartararo in 2nd and Johan Zarco in 1st. At the British GP, Aleix Espargaró earned both Aprilia and the RS-GP its first-ever podium finish in 3rd in the Modern MotoGP 4-stroke era and Aprilia's first podium finish in the premier class since Jeremy McWilliams in 2000. In 2022, another bout of improvements to the RS-GP saw it qualify on pole position and for the Argentine GP. Rider Aleix Espargaró then went on to win the race. This was not only the first win for Aprilia in MotoGP, but the first win for Espargaró in 200 starts.

Specifications

Complete MotoGP results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

{{Reflist RS-GP Grand Prix motorcycles Motorcycles introduced in 2015