MotoGP Aragon: Marquez wins to take points lead, with Rossi fifth – MotoGP

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Marc Marquez recovered from a crash in qualifying to take an imperious win in the Aragon Grand Prix, retaking sole ownership of the MotoGP points lead in the process.

From fifth on the grid, Marquez suffered a slow start but profited from poleman Maverick Vinales running wide at the end of the first lap to take fourth behind a fast-starting Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, with whom he arrived in Aragon level on points.

It soon became apparent that Marquez had superior pace to his rivals, although it took him until the sixth lap to find a way by Dovizioso, as Lorenzo maintained a small lead over Rossi out front.

From there, Marquez quickly cruised up to the back of Rossi, and attempted an audacious double-overtake on he and Lorenzo at Turn 12 on the ninth lap.

This backfired, as he ran out wide and dropped back behind Dovizioso, but the following lap the Spaniard once again passed his main title rival.

Two laps later, Rossi was powerless to defend against Marquez, slipping behind at the Turn 16/17 complex, and soon the Honda man was all over the back of long-time leader Lorenzo.

What turned out to be the decisive move of the race came on lap 16, as Marquez slithered by Lorenzo’s Ducati at Turn 12 and streaked to a fifth victory of the season by a margin of 0.879s.

After being passed by Marquez, Lorenzo was then reeled in by the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa, who had already made short work of Vinales, Dovizioso and Rossi.

Pedrosa made the move on Lorenzo with two laps to go to give the Repsol Honda squad its third one-two finish of the year.

Lorenzo nonetheless claimed his first podium finish since May’s Jerez race, and enjoyed his longest stint in the lead of a race since joining Ducati with a 15-lap spell out front.

The battle for fourth was an-all Yamaha affair, with Rossi unable to contain team-mate Vinales and conceding the place with two laps to go at Turn 1.

Rossi was however able to fend off the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro in the final two laps to salvage fifth place, a remarkable achievement just 24 days on from breaking his right leg.

Dovizioso’s title hopes took a dent with a disappointing run to seventh place, which leaves him 16 points back from Marquez with four rounds to run, while Vinales is 28 behind the lead in third place.

Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati), Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Pol Espargaro (KTM) completed the top 10, with KTM wildcard Mika Kallio just missing out on matching his Austria result in 11th.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) was also well in the mix for a top-six placing before running wide at the first corner on lap 11 and then finally crashing out of 10th place on lap 17.

Andrea Iannone (Suzuki), Jack Miller (Marc VDS Honda), Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati) and Tito Rabat (Marc VDS Honda) completed the scorers.

Race result

Pos Rider Team Bike Laps Gap
1 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 23 42m06.816s
2 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 23 0.879s
3 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 23 2.028s
4 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 23 5.256s
5 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 23 5.882s
6 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 23 6.962s
7 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 23 7.455s
8 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 23 7.910s
9 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 23 13.002s
10 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 23 14.075s
11 Mika Kallio KTM KTM 23 17.192s
12 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 23 20.632s
13 Jack Miller MVDS Honda Honda 23 23.886s
14 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati Ducati 23 25.523s
15 Tito Rabat MVDS Honda Honda 23 26.082s
16 Jonas Folger Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 23 30.302s
17 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 23 31.874s
18 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati Ducati 23 31.948s
19 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 23 36.296s
20 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 23 37.842s
21 Loris Baz Avintia Ducati Ducati 23 47.599s
22 Sam Lowes Aprilia Aprilia 23 47.647s
Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 16 Retirement
Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 10 Retirement

Riders’ standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Marc Marquez 224
2 Andrea Dovizioso 208
3 Maverick Vinales 196
4 Dani Pedrosa 170
5 Valentino Rossi 168
6 Johann Zarco 117
7 Jorge Lorenzo 106
8 Danilo Petrucci 95
9 Cal Crutchlow 92
10 Jonas Folger 84
11 Alvaro Bautista 70
12 Jack Miller 56
13 Scott Redding 56
14 Aleix Espargaro 53
15 Loris Baz 39
16 Andrea Iannone 37
17 Pol Espargaro 37
18 Karel Abraham 28
19 Tito Rabat 28
20 Alex Rins 27
21 Hector Barbera 23
22 Michele Pirro 18
23 Bradley Smith 14
24 Mika Kallio 11
25 Sam Lowes 2
26 Sylvain Guintoli 1



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