It was a special weekend for eight-time former MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez on home turf at Aragon as he celebrated his first win in three years.
There were emotional scenes in Aragon, Spain, round 12 of 20 in the 2024 series, as Marquez won his first MotoGP race since 2021, a barren run stretching back over 1000 days.
In the end it was a comfortable win for Marquez, but the real drama occurred behind him when championship leader Francesco Bagnaia was involved in a massive collision with Marquez’s brother Alex Marquez that took them both out of the race.
But it was still a Spanish 1-2-3 at Alcañiz’s MotorLand Aragón circuit in Spain on Sunday (Monday NZ time) as Marc Marquez won ahead of series leader Jorge Martín and MotoGP class rookie Pedro Acosta.
Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) tasted his first Grand Prix victory in 1043 days, cruising around MotorLand Aragon to win with a five-second margin from Martín (Prima Pramac Racing).
Martín found his element after a rocky sprint and qualifying to claim second place and extend his lead at the top of the riders’ standings.
A shocking crash saw championship leader Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) out of the race after an unfortunate collision on the dirty side of turn 12, blowing the championship fight wide open once again.
Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) found himself on the podium on home soil again, rounding off a great comeback weekend in Aragon after a rough few weeks before the summer break.
The title fight has shuffled entirely after the two exciting races in Aragon, as Martín snatches the lead from Bagnaia and Marc Marquez climbs to third in the standings.
A perfect weekend for Marc Marquez has come to fruition in the most glorious fashion after proving his dominance in Aragon by topping every session in the blistering Spanish heat.
He cruised through the 17 twists and turns of Aragon, pulling five seconds ahead of Martín in second.
This win marks his first Grand Prix victory in 1043 days, ending the winless drought that pushed him to a new team partnering with Bagnaia next year.
Marquez said: “It was an amazing race, it was incredible to win in front of this amazing crowd.
“Today was a super difficult race especially because when you have the pace, the gap was difficult to full-focus on the riding on the last 10 laps.
“I was able to manage the gap well, I had something more just in case but I’m happy.”
Meanwhile, Acosta’s performance this weekend in Aragon has cemented him as one of the best-placed rookies in the sport, adding yet another podium to his tally.
The Spanish GASGAS rider almost didn’t make it onto the podium after being jumped by Alex Marquez and Baganaia but their incident later in the final five laps gifted him the place back.
A poor start from Bagnaia dropped him down to sixth place but the reigning world champion powered through the pack and had his eyes set on Alex Marquez in third place.
Bagnaia cut the gap down each lap on his hunt for a podium spot, inching just 0.5s away from Alex Marquez before they made contact.
It was going all too well for Bagnaia and Alex Marquez as they made contact coming out of turn 12 on lap 19, after entering the “dirty” side of the track, both riders retired from the race.
The unfortunate collision between Bagnaia and Alex Marquez blew the title fight wide as Martín leaves Aragon with a 23-point lead to the Italian reigning champion.
“It was a difficult start from the beginning,” Martín said.
“I started spinning and lost some positions and I tried to recover fast but when I tried to take Pedro I almost crashed, from that point I just tried to keep a good pace.
“I was focused on the feeling, trying to understand the good line so second was the maximum we could do today.
“It was a long race, after the last eight laps I was quite long being alone but finally I’m happy for Marc because it’s been such a long period – I’m so happy for him.”
The track conditions caught out many riders in Aragon as Fabio Quartararo also suffered an end to his race on lap 6 after skidding wide out of the dirty side of turn 6.
With overnight rain hindering the previously-cleaned track, riders struggled to keep their bikes on the low-grip surface with track temperatures reaching 44° Celsius.
Martín will enter the iconic circuit in San Marino next weekend as the new championship leader, cruising with a 23-point gap to Bagnaia who failed to score points at the weekend
It was a fantastic weekend for Marc Marquez. He topped every session in Aragon and relived the old glory days of pure pace and dominance.
Photo courtesy Ducati
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MotoGP World Championship standings after round 12:
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