Marquez claims stunning sixth win of the season at Aragon

Marc Marquez continues to re-write the record books in the MotoGP class with the rookie taking his sixth win at the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón today ahead of Yamaha Factory racing’s Jorge Lorenzo who put in a very strong performance ahead of his teammate Valentino Rossi who also battled hard to claim his fourth podium finish of the year.

The race got off to a familiar start with Lorenzo taking the lead and the Repsol Honda machines of Marquez and Pedrosa following behind while Rossi was also fast off the line with LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl and GO&Fun Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista close behind and Power Electronics Aspar CRT rider Aleix Espargaro also got a great start with the Spaniard battling against the Ducati Team machines of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso while Andrea Iannone was also in the mix for the Energy TI Pramac Racing team.

Cal Crutchlow was also off to a good start with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider riding closely behind Bautista and Bradl while his teammate Bradley Smith was battling the factory Ducati’s. There was bad luck for Australian Damian Cudlin who had to retire his Paul Bird Motorsport machine within the first 3 laps and there was similar misfortune for Hector Barbera with the Avintia Blusens rider only completing 8 laps of the race.

The race at the front saw Lorenzo trying his best to stretch his lead as much as possible and the Spaniard did so for the first 5 of 23 laps while Pedrosa was locked in on Marquez’s rear wheel. While Michael Laverty (Paul Bird Motorsport) and Danilo Petrucci (Came IodaRacing Project) both crashed out early on, there was also disaster for Pedrosa who passed Marquez only to highside out of the race within a couple of laps with Marquez running off the track but rejoining in 2nd place giving Lorenzo a large lead.

The next five laps of the race saw Marquez do everything he possibly could to catch Lorenzo and little by little the rookie began to reel in his championship rival. Rossi was also fighting hard to maintain the podium position gifted to him following Pedrosa’s crash. By lap 13 Marquez was through at the front after Lorenzo decided to let his fellow countryman passed and tried to lock onto the rear of the RC213V but despite his best efforts he wasn’t able to keep up with Marquez.

While the race at the front stretched out to the point where Lorenzo accepted second place was the best he was going to achieve, the battle for third was raging with Rossi getting passed by Bautista and then re-taking the final podium place within the final two laps leaving Bradl and Bautista to swap positions a number of times while Rossi was then able to get away and secure third position while Marquez streaked across the line for his sixth win of the season.

Marquez was very happy with his win and apologetic to his teammate after the race. He said, “Today was a very grueling race, because I had to make two comebacks; the first was to catch Jorge after he broke free at the start, then I needed to make another after Dani passed me and I wanted to overtake him after two laps. I felt comfortable but I went a little wide under braking, lifted the bike up and made light contact with him. I'm not sure he even noticed it, but it was a bit of bad luck because the team told me I caused his traction control cable to snap and I'm sorry for that - it's something very unusual to see. The important thing is that Dani is OK. I was eventually able to overtake Jorge and take the victory, which is important in terms of both the 25 points and for my morale"

Lorenzo had to give best to Marquez today but remains confident for the remaining races saying, “My tactic was to start well and open a gap like I did in the last races. I could make one second at the beginning but then simply Marc was faster. When he caught me I closed the throttle to try to save some energy until the end; then he passed me and tried to go away. I tried my best to catch him but it was impossible. Today he was faster than me; there are no excuses. We have to congratulate him and now we think about the next races. The championship is more difficult now than before the race but we are going to fight for it until the end. We will try to win as many races as possible.”

Rossi was happy with his fourth podium finish of the year but tire choice held him back in today’s race. He said, “Third position is positive, to be on the podium is good. I expected to go a little bit faster after the practice this morning where I was very strong. I decided for the hard front tire whilst Marc and Jorge went for the soft and I think it was a better choice for this afternoon as I was a little bit slower. In the end the third position is very positive.”