This week’s race was a thrilling battle of champions, with Marquez emerging victorious.
MotoGP Aragon Race Report
A sunny day and a dry track greeted the riders as they lined up on the grid for Sunday’s race. The fair weather set the stage for the champions to show their strengths, and that’s exactly what they did. Let’s take a look at who shone brightest at the MotoGP Aragon.
Marquez, Vinales and Lorenzo started on front row, in that order. In the end, despite the best efforts of Vinales, the podium was taken up by the three title rivals.
The Yamaha boys lost out on a win, with Lorenzo in second and Rossi sitting just behind his teammate in third. The gap between Marquez and Rossi in the championship table now stands at 52 points, a formidable number for the Doctor and a comfortable cushion for Marquez.
Maverick builds up speed for Suzuki
To start with, the race looked like a pack of wolves hunting down their prey, as Maverick Vinales sped away on his Suzuki. He put in an impressive performance, leading for most of the early laps until the champions got tired of chasing and made their moves.
Vinales gave it some fighting talk after the race: “Another positive race for me, although I’m never fully satisfied when I’m off the podium, but we must say that we gave 100%…We are continually learning and my crew did a really good job, we are getting better and better and the results in last races are evidence of this.”
There’s no doubting Vinales’ talent now – and there’s no knowing what he’ll be capable of with the Yamaha team behind him next year and his idol Rossi to learn from. We’re expecting great things from this young man in 2017 – watch this space!
Rossi’s fortunes dip again
Valentino Rossi certainly gave it full throttle in the MotoGP Aragon – he had a lot of points to find from somewhere in order to beat his main rival Marquez. It wasn’t to be, this time, as a long tussle with his future teammate Vinales stopped him getting enough momentum to win.
With 15 laps to go, the Doctor finally managed to execute a smooth pass to snatch the lead from the young Maverick. Two laps later, Marquez rocketed up the pack to the front and crushed Rossi’s hopes of a win.
Lorenzo then started to challenge for second place, and Rossi wasn’t able to take him on. He ran out wide whilst trying to overtake – with just 2 laps to go! – and had to settle for third.
It was a disappointing weekend for Rossi despite the podium place. Losing out to both of his biggest rivals must be a bit of a blow. He was very gracious though: “The beginning of the race was very fun, a great battle and I enjoyed it…when I was in front I had good pace and tried to push at the maximum but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”
Lorenzo comes back fighting
Jorge Lorenzo did extraordinarily well at MotoGP Aragon, especially after a Warm Up crash which could have completely derailed him. Instead, he tried out two more warm-up laps with two different bikes, and found his perfect combination to turn a disaster into success.
Lorenzo commented: “I felt ok when I tried the first bike on the hard tyre, and when I tried the second bike with the soft I didn’t feel the same. On the grid it’s difficult to choose in these situations…finally we’ve ended up in a great position because we expected to finish six or seventh – and finally we are second and not far from the winner.”
The Marquez magic strikes again
Pole to pole, Marc Marquez’s performance in this race was near perfection. After an early mistake at turn 7, he dropped back to fifth place and had to work to catch up. He quickly took out Lorenzo, then went after his old enemy Rossi.
With 13 laps to go, while Rossi was still leading, Marquez’s engine was buzzing in his ear. It looked like ‘the ant’ was going to sting Rossi hard – and sure enough, Marc attacked one lap later. He then led and kept on pushing to maintain the gap, leaving Yamaha in his Honda dust.
Marquez stayed focused on the future: “I decided to push from the start and then I had a big moment at turn 7. So I said ok “quiet”, and then step by step caught Valentino…Here was a great point on the calendar to attack, and win. It’s a nice advantage but we have to stay focused… we need to keep calm.”
Now, if you were watching at all last season, it’s hard to believe that this is the same rider! This level-headed and strategic Marquez is a revelation compared to the trigger-happy maniac we shook our heads at in 2015.
We’ve said this before, but the Honda champion now has the dangerous combination of ambition and strategy that could win him another championship. Can anybody stop him?
The British effort at MotoGP Aragon
Cal Crutchlow did us proud in Aragon, putting in a solid effort to come in fifth behind Dani Pedrosa. His consistent, skilful ride won the accolade of top Independent rider – well done Cal!
Scott Redding faced disaster in the second lap after contact with his teammate Danilo Petrucci, who was penalised for causing the crash. Redding got straight back on the bike and finished in 19th. Hard luck for Redding, who has it in him to achieve a much higher race finish.
Redding was disappointed: “I started quite well then that contact made me go wide and I could not avoid the crash. I continued until the end, but it was really frustrating because in the last three races I have not had the chance to fight with the others to gain experience with this bike in dry conditions.”
Alex Lowes crashed on Saturday and was sent home, sadly missing out on another MotoGP experience. The good news is that our very own Bradley Smith will be back to ride for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in the next round. Welcome back Bradley!
When’s the next round?
The next round of MotoGP 2016 will be in Motegi, Japan on 16th October. Any early birds about? You’re in luck, as the race will be showing live at 6am UK time. We’ll be having a dose of strong coffee – or watching the replay later!
Want to look back on the season so far? Our MotoGP race reports are all in one place in the Racing News section of the Two Wheel Centre blog.
Photos courtesy of Motogp.com.
