Lowes gets his Aprilia vibe on and Espagaro confirmed switch to Italian factory for 2017 and 2018

Lowes gets his Aprilia vibe on and Espagaro confirmed switch to Italian factory for 2017 and 2018.

After being dropped by Suzuki Aleix Espargaró has now officially announced that he is joining Aprilia for the 2017/18 MotoGP series.

The Spanish rider will ride an Aprilia RS-GP bike in the World Championship. He will partner Sam Lowes in the squad.

Bringing Espargaró on board is part of Aprilia’s development plan alongside Lowes. Espargaró was the Spanish champion in the 125s. In 2009 he made his debut in the top class where he drew attention during the 2012 season on the ART (the CRT bike developed by Aprilia Racing), finishing the season as the best rider in the category.

Overall, in MotoGP, he has taken two pole positions and a podium finish, as well as seventh place the rider standings (his personal best) for the 2014 championship season.

Lowes, pictured below in Aprilia MotoGP leather for the first time, has also been out in action on the Aprilia during a test following the Assen round of the championship. He said: “The bike feels mega already! There’s a lot of work to do both with myself in terms of getting to understand the bike and with the bike to fine-tune parts of it to the way I ride, but already it’s an amazing motorcycle to ride and I can’t wait to get loads more laps on it.”