Something is amiss in the Pramac paddock. With Mika Kallio set to return at Estoril as Casey Stoner makes his revival, the casual observer would think that all is said and done for Aleix Espargaro. And yet, his behavior after the race is a bit odd.
Espargaro flew back home to Spain to have an arm pump installed—surgery that was hardly time-sensitive for the replacement rider whose days in MotoGP this year would seem to be over. And yet, Espargaro appeared bright and early in Spain today—the day after the race—to undergo the surgery.
Then there’s Niccolo Canepa. The Italian has had a god-awful MotoGP debut, never finishing higher than 8th (in Great Britain, with all the hullabaloo that occurred there), and averaging around 13th. Silly Season rumors have the odds of Canepa leaving the series as remarkably high, and his last two performances have done nothing to change that.
Finally, there’s Pramac themselves. In a small, and quite possibly insignificant move, the satellite Ducati squad have changed the nature of their press releases; where at first they listed Canepa before the substitute rider, the entire Misano weekend has listed Espargaro before Canepa, who was riding in his home country (of sorts).
The nature of this speculation is wild observation, drawing lines between tiny, miniscule facts that could all paint a bigger picture, or could all be entirely unrelated. But the tiny pieces paint a compelling picture; why would Espargaro be so quick out of Misano unless he was worried about being fully recovered in time for Estoril? And why would the Pramac press releases give so much extra time and space to the Spaniard? Only time will tell, and with three weeks before Estoril, it could be a long time before the announcement—if there is going to be one—is made.
(hat tip to YooperBikeMike who first started pulling all these pieces together)
