Marc Marquez secured a dominant victory in his 200th Grand Prix start across all classes at home at Aragon, extending his championship lead to nearly a centurion of points.
Marquez got a blistering start to keep his lead from pole position at the start, and posted a rapid opening lap to hold over a second on Jack Miller by the start of lap two.
He then set his fastest lap of the race on the second tour, quickly building his advantage to north of three seconds after just a handful of laps.
It remained a quiet rest of the race for the Honda man as he controlled his significant advantage, eventually crossing the line 4.5 seconds clear of an impressive Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati.
Ducati looked to be struggling throughout the weekend, culminating in miserable tenth and 15th starting slots for Dovizioso and factory team-mate Danilo Petrucci, although Miller managed a decent fifth on the grid.
The race was a different story though, and Dovizioso quickly began to make progress through the leading pack.
He dispatched Petronas SRT’s Fabio Quartararo for fourth with only a third of the race gone and quickly closed on Miller- who had just lost second place to Maverick Vinales.
Miller initially looked to have the Italian under control, but was passed into Turn 1 just after the mid-point of the race.
The pair continued to run nose-to-tail until the few laps, when they caiught the now struggling Vinales’ Yamaha.
The Spaniard looked to be struggling for rear grip, and dropped to fourth after being passed first by Dovizioso down the back straight and then Miller into Turn 1 as they started the final lap.
Vinales attempted to re-challenge the Aussie for the final spot on the podium, but was unable to and was forced to settle for fourth behind the Ducati’s.
Quartararo had a quiet and rather disappointing race to fifth, the Frenchman unable to replicate the pace of Vinales and dropping back in the latter stages as a result, but was still able to hold off Cal Crutchlow’s LCR Honda who took sixth.
Aleix Espargaro backed up his impressive qualifying effort to bag his and Aprilia’s season-best finish with seventh, beating the struggling Valentino Rossi who had to fend off a charging Alex Rins in the closing stages for eighth.
Rins received a long-lap penalty for taking out Franco Morbidelli at Turn 12 on lap one, costing him around three seconds plus the several he lost in the incident itself.
While ultimately unable to catch Rossi in the remaining laps he still took ninth and enough valuable points to move back ahead of Petrucci to third in the championship after he had another average race to 12th.
Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top ten on the second LCR machine, the Japanese rider getting the best of Andrea Iannone and Miguel Oliveira in the final laps.
Marquez’s win moves him 97 points clear of Dovizioso with just five races remaining, meaning it is mathematically possible to wrap up the riders championship next time out in Thailand should he extend his lead to over 100 heading to the following race in Japan.
