Marc Marquez dominates main race with textbook performance

Marc Marquez delivered a textbook race at the Motorland circuit in Aragon to secure another 25 points towards the MotoGP drivers’ championship, as he took the win ahead of brother Alex Marquez.

After a strong start, in contrast to his sprint race mishap, Marc paced himself in the early stages. Younger sibling Alex tried to keep the pressure on the six-time MotoGP champion, but by mid-distance, the gap had grown to over 1.5s. All Marc had to do was keep it clean to take victory, which he duly did.

Alex didn’t have a response and focused instead on hanging on to the second spot, which at one point looked heavily under threat, but he managed to hold on to the flag. Francesco Bagnaia took the final place on the podium after a much stronger run than in the sprint race. The Italian tried to pile the pressure on Alex but the two-time MotoGP champion couldn’t find a way past.

The KTMs looked fierce in the early stages, with Pedro Acosta, the only rider to choose the hard tyre for the front of his bike, pressuring Bagnaia throughout the early laps. The first attempt for third came on lap two into Turn 1 but Bagnaia managed to snatch the position back before Acosta slipped through once again under braking into Turn 12. The Italian regained the position down the back straight with the superior speed of the Ducati leaving Acosta defenceless. Lap four again saw the duo swap positions but the Ducati rider grabbed third back again, much to Acosta’s frustration. The latter had to settle for fourth.

Unfortunately for the factory KTM squad, its result was slightly spoiled as Brad Binder went down on lap 12 through Turn 13, losing fifth position.

Instead, fifth fell to Franco Morbidelli, whose poor start dropped him out of contention and who stayed in fifth place for the majority of the race, his lack of pace evident.

Fermin Aldeguer brought the Gresini Ducati home in sixth after a fierce battle with Morbidelli, while Honda had reason to smile as Joan Mir salvaged something from the poor weekend as he finished the race in seventh. Marco Bezzecchi recovered to finish eighth after starting at the back of the grid.

More to follow…

Aragon GP results