At least one other manufacturer has joined Ducati on the podium in each of the ten MotoGP Sprint races so far this season.

But by Sunday after🅘noon it’s been a very different story.

Ducati has won nine of the ten𒐪 grand prix races and filled all three places on the podium for the past seven events in a row, since curing its chatter issues at Jerez.

Aprilia has pr♑ovided Ducati’s main opposition🅠, winning three Sprints and inflicting the only grand prix defeat on a Desmosedici his year, at COTA.

However, the American round is the onlyཧ time an RS-GP has finished on the Sunday podium this year, compared with eight Sprint rostrums for the ‘men in black’.

So why does Ducati appear to take such aꦕ big step from Saturda♐y to Sunday?

After celebrating pole position and then a close third place (+2.0s) in the Silverstone Sprint, Aprilia’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Aleix Espargaro was helpless to prevent Ducati from filling the top five places (and seven of🃏 the top eight) in Sunday’s GP.

Aside from having more bikes and therefore data than any other manufacturer, Espargaro’s theory is that Ducati riders are ‘limited’ by front locking when running the soft rear tyre, as used ﷽for qualifying and♑ most Sprint races.

That, Espargaro says, is also🔴 why Aprilia has been able to claim three pole positions th🤡is season.

But the Ducatis don't suffer as much꧑ front locking when medium or hard rear tyres are needed for the full-distance grand prix.

“With the soft tyre, it looksꦇ like they have some kind of limit,” said Espargaro, who to💟ok the flag in sixth place, 9.5s from Enea Bastianini on Sunday.

“I think it's th🎶e front, they have some kind of locking problem [because] the rear soft is pushing them [into the corners].

“So this is why 🃏in the Sprints we can be closer, this is also why in the qualifying we can be closer.

“But when there 🥂is a hard rear tyre, they have a lot of traction and they have no locking on the front, so i𒐪t's difficult for me to fight against them.

“An🐼d today [at Si꧒lverstone] the classification speaks for itself.”

Espargaro, who won his home Catalunya Sprint alongside two pole positions this year, was making his 329th GP start on Sunday, putting him behind only Valentino Rossi (432) and Andrea Doviziosꦉo (346) in the all-time rankiꦕng.

The 35-year-old will rꦺetire at the end of this seasꦚon and switch to Honda test riding duties.

Team-mate Maverick♈ Vinales, moving to KTM in 2025, remains the top non-Ducati in the current world championship standings, in fifth. Vinales struggled for rear grip on his way to 13th at Silverstone.

Ducati will be reduc🎃ed to six bikes next season, when Pramac switches to Yamaha.