German MotoGP: Aprilia hope Aleix Espargaro can make 'miraculous recovery'

After being reduced to just one factory rider for Sunday at Assen, Aprilia are hoping Aleix Espargaro can make a ‘miraculous recovery’ in time for this weekend’s German MotoGP.

Espargaro fractured the fifth metacarpal in his right hand during a huge accident from sixth place on the final lap of Saturday’s sprint race. A day earlier he had landed heavily on his back in an accident at the final chicane.

Although declared fit to try and ride in the Assen warm-up, pain from the hand injury proved too great and Espargaro withdrew from the Sunday track action. 

However, the Spanish veteran has pledged to try and return for Friday practice at Sachsenring.

Espargaro will undergo 'magnetotherapy' to try and speed up the healing process, but team boss Massimo Rivola admitted:

“Now we need to hope for a miraculous recovery for Aleix ahead of the Sachsenring and for Lorenzo so he can continue developing the bike. I hope to see them both back on the track soon.”

Wild-card Lorenzo Savadori will be unable to replace Espargaro, should he not be able to ride this weekend, since he suffered back fractures in the same Saturday race and is expected to be sidelined for a month.

That left Maverick Vinales as the factory Aprilia team’s only rider in the Dutch Grand Prix, which he finished in fifth place, as the top non-Ducati but 8.258s from race winner Francesco Bagnaia.

"After starting from the front row and then the great result in the sprint race, we were aiming for a better outcome," Rivola said. 

"Maverick gave one hundred percent, as he did on Saturday, but the gap behind the winner was still significant."

Vinales returned to fifth after a 'drop one-place' penalty, for exceeding track limits on the last lap, was effectively cancelled out by Marc Marquez’s subsequent tyre pressure penalty.

The result meant Aprilia has now taken second in the constructors’ standings away from KTM, whose top rider was Brad Binder, in sixth but almost eight-seconds behind Vinales.

Vinales will ride an RC16 next season for the Tech3 team.