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 pole man 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 him 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.
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