There’s something about the Aragon circuit that always seems to provide us with some excellent racing. Despite being one of the newer tracks on the MotoGP calendar, it already has a number of standout races in its history, everything from daring battles to crushing victories. Perhaps it’s the abundance of left-hand turns that make it seem different to other tracks, or perhaps it’s the sweeping downhill sections that provide such beautiful camera angles. Whatever it is, it makes Aragon one of the most popular circuits we visit in the modern MotoGP calendar.
Sunday’s race didn’t disappoint. We were treated to 23 laps of absolute drama, with battles raging all the way through the field, but there were two riders who stood out above the rest and who were left to decide the winner of the grand prix. Marc Marquez went into the weekend as the bookie’s favourite at one of his beloved anti-clockwise tracks, but found himself locked in battle with Pecco Bagnaia for the entirety of the race. Eventually, after seven overtakes in the final laps, Bagnaia emerged victorious and took his first win since stepping up to the MotoGP class.
We all knew Bagnaia would win eventually – he clearly has the talent to mix it with the best, and has a Moto2 title to back it up with – but winning it in this style was nothing short of extraordinary. He led the race the whole way through despite Marquez breathing down his neck, and even with the relentless pressure applied in the final laps he was able to hold his nerve to secure the win. It was a gutsy, confident ride, and will instil a huge amount of confidence in both Bagnaia and the factory Ducati team moving forwards.
It’s curious to think about given his incredible history, but one reason Marquez may have failed to convert here is his lengthy absence in the last year and a half. Bagnaia stepped up to the MotoGP class in 2019 but never really saw much action towards the front of any races until mid-2020, by which point Marquez had already been sidelined, so Sunday’s race was the first time the two riders had gone toe-to-toe. Marquez spent almost four years building up a status of being almost unbeatable when it came to straight showdowns on track, with only the likes of Dovizioso and Vinales able to consistently beat the Spaniard, and this likely played into the mentality of other riders, but Bagnaia came to the party late enough to be almost unfazed by the champion.
A strange new world may be facing Marquez in the coming years. There’s a whole new generation of riders entering the class, and these youngsters have never really faced Marc when he’s at his absolute best, so they have no reason to fear him on track. Seeing “+1 93” on your pit board used to be something that would test the mettle of any MotoGP rider, but the likes of Mir, Martin and Bagnaia have no reason to sweat over that any more than their other foes. There may still be time for Marc to win another world title, assuming his recovery process continues to chug along, but it really feels like we’ve seen the last of the commanding, unbeatable Marquez that we witnessed in 2018 and 2019.
There’s another reason to give extra credit to Bagnaia here. Last year when we visited Aragon for the double header the weather was much colder than previous trips, and while most manufacturers adapted to the conditions the Ducati factory struggled immensely with the lack of grip. While Dovizioso was eventually able to scrape together some points come race day, the rest of the Bologna riders suffered under race conditions, and Bagnaia in particular suffered two of his worst races in his premier class history. To come back from that just one year later and take such an impressive victory speaks volumes to the sheer talent of Pecco, and I fully expect to see him winning more races in the future.
If there was a rider who suffered the most this time out, it was Quartararo. The championship leader looked uncomfortable all weekend, struggling with a circuit he has a bad history with, and he never really showed the one-lap dominance he usually does during free practice sessions. Come Saturday he was able to put himself on the front row anyway, a testament to just how strong he is in qualifying sessions, but when the race rolled around he dropped like a stone through the field. A decent bit of recovery towards the end allowed him to salvage a top eight, but this was definitely not Quartararo’s week.
He picked a pretty bad time to have arguably his worst weekend of the season, too, since title rivals Bagnaia and Mir both landed themselves on the podium, allowing them to claw back some of the points lost in Silverstone. To be clear, Fabio should still have enough in reserve to clinch the world title at the conclusion of the season, but his lead certainly looks more salvageable now than it did heading into Aragon. Should he stumble once or twice more before the year is out – and he will need to stumble, according to Mir – then we could yet see a proper showdown come Valencia.
We have finally reached a stage in the championship where the list of riders still in contention is starting to narrow down. As it stands, only eight riders are still within a mathematical chance of taking the title in November, and they are Quartararo, Bagnaia, Mir, Zarco, Miller, Binder, Aleix Espargaro and Vinales. If Quartararo take a podium next time out in Misano then the list will shrink again to six or less. The contenders will continue to narrow down round by round until either the Frenchman reaches an unbeatable position or the series comes to a close in Valencia. Unfortunately for his rivals, Quartararo only needs to finish third for the remaining five races to seal the deal, which given his season so far sounds rather tenable indeed.
There were a number of standout performances further down the field, too. Enea Bastianini took an unbelievable sixth place finish after his best weekend of his rookie season, backing up his first appearance in a Q2 session with his highest finish to date. What’s especially impressive about ‘The Beast’ finishing so highly is that he did it on a two-year-old machine, and was still able to fend off the likes of Binder, Quartararo and several riders on factory spec machinery. Additionally, Iker Lecuona had another spectacular weekend, fighting in the top eight for the majority of the race before a mistake dropped him back to eleventh. Had it not been for that error, he likely would have finished as the best KTM rider of the weekend.
It’s a crying shame that he won’t be in MotoGP next season. His rumoured deal to join Honda’s World Superbike efforts looks pretty much set in stone, and while he certainly deserves such a ride it remains a pity he couldn’t remain in MotoGP for longer. He is young enough that he could certainly return to the class in the future and still have a solid career here – after all, he’s just 21 years of age at present – but with the current talent pool of Moto2 riders feeding pretty naturally into MotoGP it is harder than ever to make the transfer from another championship. Whatever happens to the youngster, I can only wish him the best of luck, and hope that he continues to round out his season with more strong results and points finishes.
Luckily, we don’t have to wait long to see him and the rest of the paddock back in action. Round 14 kicks off in Misano on Friday, and it’s going to be a cracker as Rossi returns to his home circuit for his continued farewell tour. Additionally, we are expecting the return of Franco Morbidelli and Andrea Dovizioso, and the continued battle for the championship. There should be plenty of fireworks, and the race is only days away.
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