Marquez storms to victory in Aragon
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has been threatening to notch up his first win on Spanish soil since Valencia 2014 all weekend, the Spaniard setting a frightening pace throughout practice.
Taking pole by over six tenths of a second, it would take a mistake or an act of God to halt Marquez’ charge. The latter almost played a part, the conditions for race day slightly colder than what they had been on the previous day. This sent the grid into a panicked frenzy over tyre choice, particularly with the front, and whilst most opted for the medium option Marquez stuck to his guns and ran with the asymmetric hard.
In the early stages of the race, those running the softer compound did hold the advantage. Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales, the Silverstone winner also taking a hard front, roughed up Marquez in the opening corners, with Vinales coming out ahead.
Twitter: We’re racing at the #AragonGP!
@maverickmack25 leads after a savage 1st set of corners
#MM93 in 3rd behind #JL99! https://t.co/5v6FK9mPgl (@MotoGP)
Vinales tried to build an advantage early on as so to counter any attack that Marquez would throw at him later in the race, but his efforts were futile. The Honda rider had cleared Lorenzo and scythed his way past the Suzuki man at Turn 15 on the second lap.
However, Marquez almost tucked the front at Turn 7 and this dropped him to fifth. Vinales retook the lead from Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, whilst Marquez just eased off and allowed his front tyre to come up to temperature.
Finding confidence with the tyre fairly quickly, Marquez was back up to third ahead of Lorenzo whilst Rossi put a move on Vinales for the lead into Turn 4, the Italian making it stick.
Rossi needed to pull away as quick as possible in order to preserve his softer rubber, the Italian needing Vinales to put up as much resistance as possible to the Marquez onslaught. But a mistake from the Suzuki rider into the first corner allowed the Honda easy passage through to second, and Rossi was powerless to repel an attack at Turn 15 on the 12th lap of 23.
With clear air ahead, Marquez stormed off into the distance and effortlessly took his fourth win of the season to match Mick Doohan’s career total of 54.
Second would have limited the damage in the championship to Marquez for Rossi, but his teammate had other ideas. Having finally fended off a stubborn Vinales, Lorenzo soon found himself right on the tail of Rossi and the pair locked horns in an intriguing scrap.
Lorenzo had much better grip coming out of the corners than Rossi, but the Italian was able to counter that with more edge grip through the turns than the Spaniard. This saw the pair extend and reduce their gap for a number of laps, though Rossi ended his chances of runner-up spot when he ran too hot into Turn 12 on the penultimate tour and gave Lorenzo the breathing space he needed to take his best result since winning the Italian Grand Prix back in May.
Rossi’s third means he does still lead Lorenzo in the standings by 14 points, but his gap to Marquez has opened out from 43 to 52 points with just four races to go. Of course, anything can happen in Grand Prix racing, but it does now finally look as if any small chance has evaporated.
Twitter: #VR46 runs wide! His bid for 2nd is OVER!
Final lap! #AragonGP https://t.co/tK2Kgkoers (@MotoGP)
Maverick Vinales crossed the line in a lonely fourth, several errors for the Suzuki rider locking him into the position. LCR’s Cal Crutchlow emerged from a pretty tasty scrap between himself, Dani Pedrosa, Aleix Espargaro and Pol Espargaro in a strong fifth place with the aforementioned trio taking the flag in that order to complete the top eight.
Aprilia got two bikes into the top 10 for the third time this season, though unlike in France and Argentina this result was not as a result of odd circumstances. Both Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl have looked strong all weekend, the German making QP2 for the first time this year. In the race, it was Bautista who came out as top RS-GP runner in ninth while Bradl rounded out the top 10.
Dovizioso’s challenge faded very early on, his medium/medium combination dropping off rather sharply and plunging him back to 11th. Michele Pirro, his teammate, rose from 17th to a decent 12th ahead of Hector Barbera, Eugene Laverty and Marc VDS’ stand-in Nicky Hayden. Danilo Petrucci was 16th after he was handed a ride through penalty for causing a collision with his Pramac teammate Scott Redding on the first lap, the Briton remounting to finish 18th.
Avintia’s Loris Baz fought through the pain in his injured foot to reach the finish in 17th, with Marc VDS Honda’s Tito Rabat crashing out. Tech 3’s Alex Lowes did not contest the race after being declared unfit to ride following a crash in FP3 which left him with a badly swollen left foot.