Marc Marquez snapped a winless drought of almost three years by dominating the Aragon Grand Prix, the six-time MotoGP world champion leading from start to finish to win a Grand Prix for Ducati for the first time.
The 31-year-old, in his first season for Gresini Ducati after spending his entire 11-year career with Repsol Honda, sealed a dominant weekend at Aragon with his sixth MotoGP victory at the circuit, which came from pole position and after he’d won the 11-lap sprint race 24 hours earlier.
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Marquez’s previous victory came at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in October 2021, the 38-race run the longest drought of his career, and was never in doubt after he led from pole position and stormed to a two-second lead within two laps of Sunday’s 23-lap race.
Marquez’s 60th MotoGP victory came by 4.789 seconds over fellow Spaniard Jorge Martin, the Pramac Ducati rider extending his world championship lead to 23 points after reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia crashed out on lap 18 in an incident with Marquez’s younger brother and teammate Alex Marquez.
Marquez, in third place, ran deep into Turn 12 and cut back across the circuit and undercut Bagnaia, the Italian pinned beneath Marquez’s bike as the pair skidded into the trackside gravel trap. Both riders were able to walk away, but Bagnaia visited the trackside medical centre for checks with the incident to be investigated by the race stewards.
The incident promoted GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta to the podium in third, the 20-year-old taking his third Grand Prix rostrum result of the season and snapping a run of eight straight all-Ducati podiums.
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Marquez’s win, his first Grand Prix success in 1043 days, was Ducati’s 11th in 12 Grands Prix this season, and came after four shoulder surgeries following his season-opening accident at Jerez in Spain in 2020 that stopped his run of six titles in seven seasons.
“Today was a super difficult race because especially when you have the pace, with the gap it was difficult to full focus with the riding in the last 10 laps,” Marquez said.
“I was able to manage well the gap, and I had something in the pocket just in case.”
Jack Miller finished in 10th place for KTM from 15th on the grid, the Australian advancing to eighth on lap two before fading to finish 39.966secs behind Marquez.
Despite not winning a Grand Prix since round five in France in May, the consistent Martin (299 points) takes a decisive series lead over Bagnaia (276) into round 13 of the season next weekend in Misano for the San Marino Grand Prix.
Marquez’s victory elevates him to third in the standings, 70 points adrift of Martin and one point ahead of Bagnaia’s Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini, who finished fifth from 14th on the grid.
Source Agencies
