Marc Marquez beats Lorenzo in a dramatic race at Aragon
Polesitter and Rookie Marc Marquez wins a dramatic action packed race at home land Aragon in Spain beating fellow Spaniard and World Champion Jorge Lorenzo thus extending his championship lead with just 4 races to go. The super rookie breaks another record with 6th victory of the season by a MotoGP fresher in his rookie year.
As always Lorenzo took off like a rocket at the start to gain an instant flyer lead over the second placed Pedrosa while Marquez who mugged at the start squeezed past his team mate Pedrosa in the second corner asRossi was on fourth with Bradl in fifth.
Lorenzo took off to a 1.2sec lead over Marquez who seemed to be struggling with the full fueled bike which made Pedrosa catch up from behind. Repsol Honda rider pushed together to slowly inching closer to Lorenzo;s Yamaha.
But Lap 5 Pedrosa made a classic move on Marquez on the inside and the top 3 riders were bunched together on what seemed to be like yet another Spanish Civil war brewing and tha too in Spain while Rossi was struglling in 4th managing to hold off an all charged up Bradl.
Lorenzo managed to hold off the Repsol Honda boys but on the very next lap at the back straight Marquez went in too deep and managed to avoid Pedrosa with a slight brush on the back wheel and went off the track and to everyone's surprise and shock Pedrosa highsided within few seconds on the acceleration and fell on the middle of the track causing the following riders Rossi, Bradl and Baustista take evasive action to avoid the spinning Repsol Honda bike. (Note: Honda later revealed Marquez's brush off Pedrosa's rear wheel cut the traction control cable and caused the highside when the throttle was opened.)
Lorenzo got a cushion from Marquez who rejoined 1.5seconds down while Rossi and Bradl lost valuable time due to the incident and was on the clutches of Bautista and Crutchlow which developed into a 4way battle for the final podium spot.
Marquez slowly started to regain on Lorenzo and with 10laps to go the young fresher to MotoGP was ready to mount a challenge to his fellow countryman and double world champion Jorge Lorenzo.
Within few corners while Marc was yet to challenge, Lorenzo eased off and braked early than usual and Marquez overtook without any attack as if it was a planned tactic by Lorenzo on the young rookie. Marquez tried to get away but Lorenzo was in tow within a half a second gap while Rossi was holding off three riders for the podium spot.
With 6laps to go Bautista makes a move on the Yamaha of Rossi for third while Lorenzo gets closer to Marquez as if to mount an attack for the lead but the young rookie buckles his belt from the 18th lap and pulls a comfortable cushion.
From then on Lorenzo lost pace and started to drop down on Marquez and Rossi on the other hand closed in on Bautista and made amazing move in the inside and then held off the Honda rider with a better drive on the exit and closed the door from the outside. Bradl immediately charged up and attacked Bautista and the couple exchanged places for the next few corners.
Repsol Factory Honda´s Marquez crossed the line 1.3secs ahead of Factory Yamaha´s Lorenzo and extended his championship lead by 39 points.
Rossi gained a comfortable cushion over Bautista with a energized lap and crossed the line in 3rd. Bautista got better of Bradl to finish fourth while Tech3 Yamaha´s Crutchlow finished 6th.
Bradley Smith came in a lonely 7th on the second Tech 3 Yamaha ahead of the Ducatis of Dovizioso and Hayden. Iannone on the satellite Ducati rounded off the Top10 while Espargaro once again finished as the top CRT rider his in ART in 11th.
Pos. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Time/Gap |
1 | Marc MARQUEZ | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 42'03.459 |
2 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | +1.356 |
3 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | +12.927 |
4 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | Honda | +13.787 |
5 | Stefan BRADL | GER | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | +13.973 |
6 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +14.662 |
7 | Bradley SMITH | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +31.220 |
8 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | +40.671 |
9 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | Ducati | +53.413 |
10 | Andrea IANNONE | ITA | Energy T.I. Pramac Racing | Ducati | +55.067 |
11 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | +58.001 |
12 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Ignite Pramac Racing | Ducati | +1'05.513 |
13 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | +1'06.589 |
14 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | JPN | Avintia Blusens | FTR | +1'08.674 |
15 | Claudio CORTI | ITA | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | FTR Kawasaki | +1'09.130 |
16 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | FTR Kawasaki | +1'12.041 |
17 | Luca SCASSA | ITA | Cardion AB Motoracing | ART | +1'45.152 |
18 | Bryan STARING | AUS | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | FTR Honda | +1'45.228 |
19 | Lukas PESEK | CZE | Came IodaRacing Project | Ioda-Suter | +1'45.583 |