Gresini Racing’s Marc Marquez converted pole position into Sprint victory at Aragon, taking his first win of any kind in MotoGP in three years.
The Spaniard’s Sprint success saw him head the field for the first time since the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, winning by over three seconds over Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin with Tech3’s Pedor Acosta rounding out the podium.
Marquez was the form man heading into the short format Sprint race, having topped all three practice sessions and dominated qualifying, enjoying a pole-winning margin of 0.840s.
Poised to challenge him from the front row of the grid were Acosta and Bagnaia, with Martin leading the second row.
Marquez snatched the holeshot at the start of the 11-lap frenzy, followed by Martin and Acosta as Bagnaia suffered a nightmare off of the line, slipping to sixth.
Things went worse for Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who crashed out at the opening corner after out braking himself and tagging the back of Fabio Di Giannantonio’s VR46 Ducato.
There was also a Lap 1 crash for LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, a missed opportunity after the Frenchman qualified in 10th.
Bagnaia made his way back to fifth in the opening corners of Lap 1 and fourth in the opening sector of Lap 2, passing Alex Marquez.
That left the Italian with a 1.5s deficit to the top three of Marquez, Martin and Acosta to cover.
Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli added his name to the list of fallers on the second tour of the Italian circuit.
Bagnaia may have had designs on chasing the top three, but A. Marquez was sticking to his tail and the battle for fourth also included Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira in the early laps.
However, an error by the Italian saw him slip to sixth in that exchange on Lap 4, leaving him in the clutches of KTM’s Brad Binder after outbraking himself into Turn 5.
Marquez meanwhile, set about controlling things at the front, opening his margin to Martin to 0.9s.
By Lap 6, with over half the Sprint completed, Marquez’s leading margin was up to 1.5s with a victory seemingly assured.
Bagnaia’s Saturday afternoon was going from bad to worse at this point, with Binder pipping him to take sixth coming onto the back straight.
That left the #1 Ducati rider ahead a train of chasing bikes including Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez and Enea Bastianini.
Out in front, Marquez led by 2.5s with five laps remaining.
On Lap 8, the factory Ducati duo found themselves swapping positions, with Bastianini climbing into seventh at the expense of his team-mates.
A lap later, Marquez was busy making a statement, extending his lead over Martin to 3.8s.
The Spaniard cruised home to take victory by over three seconds, standing up across the finish line and pounding his chest in celebration.
Martin’s runner-up spot saw him reclaim the championship lead by three points over Bagnaia, with Acosta riding well to complete the rostrum.
A. Marquez rode well to finish fourth, proving Aragon is a popular hunting ground for the Gresini brothers as Oliveira rounded out the top five.
Binder and Bastianini finished sixth and seventh respectively with Quartararo displacing Bagnaia to take eighth.
Behind Bagania, VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi took 10th, losing out in a last-lap battle with his Italian compatriot.
11th went to Trackhouse’s Fernandez, ahead of Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez and KTM’s Jack Miller.
Next up in 14th was LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami with Di Giannantonio and Repsol Honda’s Luca Marini in 15th and 16th respectively.
Rounding out the classified riders was Yamaha’s Alex Rins, Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir and Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales.
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