Although unable to match team-🦂mate Maverick Vinales’ Sprint victory heroics, Aleix Espargaro hailed his fifth place as a great personal performance at one of his worst tracks.

Starting on pole, Vinales led t💖he Sprint from start to finish for his second Satur🦋day victory in a row.

Meanwhile Espargaro, the only rider to win official (Su🌳nday) MotoGP races so far for Aprilia, rode fro💎m seventh to fifth place, 6.7s behind Vinales.

“I am extremely happy for Aprilia and for Maverick. This win demonstra🌟tes that the bike is improving greatly,” Espargaro said.

"For🌸 me, this is one of my worst tracks on the calendar, along with Austria. I [st♚ruggle] in stop-and-go corners. So I have to improve.

“But I'm very happy with my performance, sincerely. If at my worst circuits, on my worst days, I can 😼finish fifth in MotoGP, that’s great.

“I think the [Sunday] race will be better for us because our tyre🍷 consumption looks slightly better than KTM and Ducati. So hopefully we can be even closer to the podium.”