Twenty-five points and a title race that keeps moving
Marc Marquez left the rear ride height device engaged at the start. He admitted it himself in parc ferme. That small mistake cost him the lead into Turn 3 at MotorLand Aragon this afternoon, and for a lap it looked like the Ducati rider had thrown away a weekend he had controlled since Friday.
He fixed it fast. Jorge Martin had shouldered his way past on the run through the opening corners, making it an Aprilia one-two ahead of the Ducati, but by the end of lap one Marquez had cut back through the Spaniard. Pedro Acosta followed him through moments later.
Lap 6, Turn 15: Marquez went by Marco Bezzecchi. The pair ran millimetres apart down the back straight at over 300km/h before the Aprilia had to yield in the final complex. Acosta then swept around the outside of Bezzecchi and set about the new leader.
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Acosta made him work for it
The KTM sat glued to the back of the Ducati for the next several laps. Marquez set the fastest lap on lap 9 and Acosta stayed with him. On lap 10 the two recorded identical times, with Bezzecchi quicker than both in third. At half distance the leading trio were covered by under a second.
What broke it was the lap records. Marquez started putting them in from the front and neither the KTM nor the Aprilia had an answer. The gap grew, then held, and the #93 crossed the line with breathing space.
Acosta had spent Saturday night criticising his own performance after missing his grid slot for the sprint. His answer on Sunday was second place. Bezzecchi took third from pole for his second podium of the weekend, both of them ahead of his championship-leading teammate.
The standings after Aragon
Thirty-seven points across the sprint and the Grand Prix lift Marquez to second overall, 19 behind Martin. The Aprilia rider took fifth in both races at MotorLand and watched his lead shrink by the hour. Bezzecchi, third in the championship, closed too.
Alex Marquez held fourth and never got near the lead trio. Fermin Aldeguer took sixth on his return to action, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio. Enea Bastianini reeled in rookie Diogo Moreira with five laps left and made the move stick on the last lap for eighth. Brad Binder pipped Jack Miller for tenth. Francesco Bagnaia crashed out early and was unhurt, while Raul Fernandez retired at around a third distance after hunting down Martin in the opening laps.
Misano comes next, in two weeks. Every one of Marquez’s Grand Prix podiums this season bar one has come at an anti-clockwise circuit, and all of those were wins. Misano runs clockwise.
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