- 2018-09-24
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ MotoGP Aragon: Marc Marquez Wins at MotorLand Aragón, Jorge Lorenzo Crashes
Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón witnessed Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) beat Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Andrea Iannone (Suzuki Ecstar) at MotorLand Aragón on September 23, 2018.
Marc Marquez claimed his sixth victory of the 2018 season and reigned a thrilling Aragon race. Andrea Dovizioso finished 2nd behind Marquez by 0.648s. Andrea Iannone was 3rd, which is his first podium since Spanish GP of the Round 3 on MotoGP 2018.
Pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) drifted wide at the first corner and suffered a major high-side crash in the first lap.
After Lorenzo's crash, four riders Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) battled for top.
Andrea Dovizioso kept 1st place until lap 23, but Marc Marquez tried to pass him in several times between lap 19 and lap 23. Finally he overtook Andrea Dovizioso 5 laps remaining and took the chequered flag in 1st.
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was 5th behind the 4th place Alex Rins.
In addition to Jorge Lorenzo,s Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati) were crashed out.
The race winner Marc Marquez said:
“Today I got up and I said ‘I have the feeling to take a risk’. I took a risk in the Warm Up, but after I started a big discussion with the team because I didn’t feel good with the hard over the whole weekend, so I said 'I want to use the soft' then we had many meetings and discussions and I was able to be convincing enough to choose the soft rear because it was the only chance I had to fight against Dovi. And it was the right choice and then the fight was incredible until the end with Dovi because we did a great show for the fans… it was a great moment.
I started quite well but then when I braked at the first part I locked the front and then because I was in the dirty place, I said ‘ok I won’t stop the bike’ then I released the brakes to go wide, then I started to push, then I didn’t realise until I arrived in parc ferme that Lorenzo was out.
But with Dovi also the fight was very very tight, we had a few contacts at Turn 14, he was in then we had contact, I was on the green, but then with Iannone, it was a great fight. Aggressive but in the limits, so this is MotoGP and I think all the fans enjoyed it.
Of course, MotorLand is an amazing track for me. It’s one of my favourite layouts and I enjoyed riding this weekend a lot. There was a lot of pressure, but it’s a good thing.”
Runner-up Andrea Dovizioso said:
“We came here with a lot of confidence and from the competitors, they thought we can win the race easy, but it is never like this. I’m so happy how much we improved from last year – this is the point.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t win and we tried until the last lap, but we have to study and analyse the reality and we did a huge step. Also in this race I think we can learn something for the future and this is very positive.
I was able to stay with Marc until the end and I expected to see Marc struggle a little bit more at the end, but he had a really good speed. He was riding really good, very well, because on the right corners he was losing a lot for the tyre he had, but on the left corners he was better, so I couldn’t really fight with him.
I did some fight, but I didn’t really have a lot of tyre. Second is ok and it is important for the future to improve again, with what we learned this weekend, but we have to be really happy. From the first practice to the race, our speed is really good.
A little (bit surprised). I knew from the practice Andrea had a really good pace, but you never know – sometimes in the practice he is fast, in the race, no, so you never know what you can expect. Everybody struggled with the tyres but the real battle was with me and Marc, but I didn’t have enough tyre to really fight.
I was trying to stop him but he did a really fast two laps – the last two laps – and that didn’t give me the possibility to stop him.”
The 3rd place Andrea Iannone said:
“It was a really great race for us and in many cases, a real battle because first of all, I fight a lot with my tyres, especially with the rear because it is really important to manage for all the race.
During the practice we worked in a good direction with the used tyres and in the race I tried to not push a lot and push the bike on the side, and I think this is a really good strategy. From the beginning, Marc and Dovi had a really good pace but fortunately to remain really close, I didn’t need to push at 100 per-cent. When Alex (Rins) overtook me and pushed, I lose a little bit to Dovi and Marc, but I remained calm and I tried to manage the tyre situation for all the race.
At the end, the last five or six laps I started to recover the gap a little bit. The Honda and Ducati are more faster than us on the straight and I think this is the negative point for the race of today, but it was a good race.
“We work a lot on the set-up and the soft tyre this weekend for us is a little bit better on the drive when we pick up the bike. With the hard one, we lose something and have more spin, but we improved acceleration on the soft one and we focused on this point on used tyres for the distance, so it was really good.”
Aragon Grand Prix Race Results- Marc Marquez / Repsol Honda / 41m 55.949s
- Andrea Dovizioso / Ducati Team / 41m 56.597s
- Andrea Iannone / Suzuki Ecstar / 41m 57.208s
- Alex Rins / Suzuki Ecstar / 41m 58.587s
- Dani Pedrosa / Repsol Honda / 42m 1.223s
- Aleix Espargaro / Factory Aprilia Gresini / 42m 5.345s
- Danilo Petrucci / Pramac Ducati / 42m 10.234s
- Valentino Rossi / Movistar Yamaha / 42m 11.148s
- Jack Miller / Pramac Ducati / 42m 12.324s
- Maverick Viñales / Movistar Yamaha / 42m 18.406s
- Franco Morbidelli / EG 0,0 Marc VDS / 42m 22.974s
- Takaaki Nakagami / LCR Honda / 42m 23.906s
- Bradley Smith / Red Bull KTM Factory / 42m 24.770s
- Johann Zarco / Monster Yamaha Tech3 / 42m 28.294s
- Karel Abraham / Angel Nieto Team / 42m 33.588s
- Scott Redding / Factory Aprilia Gresini / 42m 35.534s
- Thomas Luthi / EG 0,0 Marc VDS / 42m 36.712s
- Hafizh Syahrin / Monster Yamaha Tech3 / 42m 52.245s
- Xavier Simeon / Reale Avintia / 42m 54.930s
- Jordi Torres / Reale Avintia / 42m 55.462s
- source : MotoGP
