Marc Marquez claimed a hard-fought victory at the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix for his 77th win in the premier class.
Marquez had to battle from fourth to first after his ride height device was stuck down for the first five corners of the race, but seamlessly found his way to the front to claim the race victory.
Marco Bezzecchi made a good start, but was outdragged to the first corner by Marquez, who briefly gained the lead at the opening corner.
However, Marquez ran wide which allowed Bezzecchi the chance to hang around the outside at Turn 3 to regain the lead, which the Aprilia rider took.
Marquez almost lost a further position to his brother Alex Marquez, but an opportunistic move from championship leader Jorge Martin saw him take second over the pair.
However, Marc Marquez was quick to respond to Martin, taking an audacious move of his own at Turn 14 to regain second place.
A couple of moments for the title leader saw him drop back to his starting position of fifth as Pedro Acosta took third on the back straight before Alex Marquez also got in front.
After an early breather to settle the order, Marquez turned up the heat on Lap 6 to close the nine tenth gap to Bezzecchi out front to get onto the back wheel of the Aprilia rider.
Setting up a move on the exit of Turn 14, Marquez and Bezzecchi duelled down the backstraight, with the Ducati rider taking the lead to the roars of the home crowd.
Acosta used the slipstream from the two riders and took advantage of Marquez’s move, also passing Bezzecchi to take second place.
Marquez and Acosta had by far the best pace of the field and streaked ahead of the rest, although the KTM rider was unable to find any answer to the nine time world champion.
A couple of errors at mid-race distance for Acosta brought Bezzecchi back into contention, but the Spaniard recovered his momentum to once again build a gap.
However, no one was able to get on terms with Marquez as he cruised to the line to claim victory by 1.754s.
The win saw Marquez move up to second in the championship standings, closing the gap to Martin in the standings to just 19 points.
Acosta took the chequered flag in second as Bezzecchi completed the podium in third.
Alex Marquez finished a distant fourth place, with Martin rounding out the top five after seeing his lead at the top of the riders’ standings cut down.
Fermin Aldeguer was sixth ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio in seventh, while Enea Bastianini showcased his typical late race pace to charge to eighth at the flag.
Moreira was unable to hold off Bastianini and took ninth, as Brad Binder finished 10th.
Jack Miller ended the race in 11th, with Joan Mir ahead of former team-mate Alex Rins in 12th.
Luca Marini took the chequered flag in 14th, as Johann Zarco completed the points finishers despite serving a double long lap penalty on his injury return.
Pol Espargaro was 16th ahead of fellow stand-in Lorenzo Savadori, with Fabio Quartararo rounding out the finishers in a disappointing 18th.
Raul Fernandez suffered a technical problem and retired from the race, while Franco Morbidelli, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Francesco Bagnaia both crashed out.
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