espargaró

FC Barcelona has joined Catalonia’s National Alliance for Self-Determination, which groups together more than 3,000 organisations, such as chambers of commerce, employers’ associations, trade unions, political parties, NGOs, etc. The world famous sports club therefore backs Catalonia’s self-determination process and will participate in this group that works to push it forward. Furthermore, in the last few weeks leading Catalan sportsmen such as Xavi Hernández, Gerard Piqué, Pep Guardiola, Cesc Fàbregas, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Aleix Espargaró and Pol Espargaró have given their explicit support to Catalonia’s right to hold a self-determination vote to decide on its own political future, regardless of whether they would vote for independence or not. In fact, only Guardiola has openly backed independence, although none of the others have specified being against it.

Moto2 World Champion Pol Espargaró is disputing the MotoGP World Championship for the first time this year after winning the Moto2 competition last season. Born in Granollers (Greater Barcelona) in 1991, he climbed on his first motorcycle at just 3 years old and just a year later he started competing. He has been competing at Championship level since 2006 and in his international debut he became the youngest rider to obtain points in a Grand Prix. He competed with different teams and brands such as Derbi, Kalex and Yamaha. His eldest brother Aleix Espargaró has also competed at the highest level –MotoGP- since 2009.

In MotoGP the victory of Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo and Catalan rider Dani Pedrosa’s second spot on the podium riveted the thousands of fans that came to the Catalunya Circuit at Montmeló, as did the victory of Catalan promise Maverick Viñales in the Moto3 category. However, in Moto2 local favourites Marc Márquez and Pol Espargaró clashed leaving Espargaró out of the race and Márquez in 3rd position. Victory in the Moto2 category was for Italian Andrea Ianone.