With the top four qualifiers covered by less than two-tenths of a second, the Grand Prix of Aragon was expected to bring another bout of tightly-fought battles.
And this was the scenario during the 23-lap at Aragon, round 14 of 18 in the 2013 MotoGP Championship. All eyes were on the top four qualifiers, the only riders with a mathematical chance of taking the 2013 MotoGP title as the series headed to the third of four rounds held on Spanish soil.
Leading qualifying was Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, the 20-year-old rookie who took his seventh pole at Aragon. Marquez, who finished on the podium in 12 of 13 rounds, including five wins, qualified ahead of Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo and Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.
These three Spaniards have finished on the podium in last four races, and were the strongest candidates for the 2013 MotoGP title. The other candidate qualified fourth at Aragon – nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi. The Italian finished fourth in the last four races, not able to match the pace of Spain’s finest motorcycle racers.
Clear skies greeted the 24-rider grid Sunday at the 3.155-mile circuit containing 17 corners.And when Aragon MotoGP got underway, Lorenzo piloted his YZR-M1 to the lead ahead of Pedrosa, Marquez and Rossi.
But Marquez wasted no time. Rounding the second corner, he took second from Pedrosa. Marquez immediately set his eyes on the reigning MotoGP Champion, who already had a over a half-second lead on Marquez.
Getting off the line in fifth was Germany’s Stefan Bradl. The LCR Honda RC213V rider was immediately on Rossi’s tail. GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow and Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso quickly joined this race-long battle for fourth.
Chasing his first premier-class MotoGP title, Pedrosa began setting some blistering laps. On the third go around Aragon, he set a new circuit record of 1:48.565, beating the previous record held by Stoner. He continued this pace, and with 19 to go, Pedrsoa passed Marquez. The rookie didn’t let his guard down, though, stalking Pedrosa closely.
With 18 to go, Marquez ran wide while almost touching Pedrosa. Though the two did rub, a few feet later Pedrosa suffered a nasty high side. It appeared as if Pedrosa slightly altered his line, thinking Marquez was within striking distance.
Pedrosa hit the concrete hard, and was slow to get up. Fortunately, medical crews reported no major injury. But unfortunately, the crash likely put an end to Pedrosa’s chances at the 2013 MotoGP title. With Pedrosa out of Aragon MotoGP, Lorenzo opened a 1.9-second lead on Marquez.
Behind, Rossi had to defend his third place from three hungry riders – Bradl, Bautista and Crutchlow. With 15 to go, Crutchlow passed Bautista for fifth, but the Spaniard reacted quickly, taking the position back from the British rider.
With 10 laps remaining, Marquez was on the tail of Lorenzo, the usual occurrence of 2013 MotoGP, the two riders making the Spanish crowd go wild. And on turn 11, Marquez passed Lorenzo, and immediately began pulling away.
With tire management key at the technical Aragon, Lorenzo appeared to be saving his Bridgestone slicks for some final-lap attempts. But the two-time MotoGP Champ couldn’t catch his new nemesis; Marquez would beat Lorenzo to the line by 1.356 seconds en route to is sixth win of 2013 MotoGP.
The battle for third between Bautista and Rossi was just as intense. With six to go, Bautista made an aggressive inside pass on Rossi. But the Italian would not let Bautista gain much ground. And with two laps to go, Rossi slipped back into third place after out-braking Bautista as the two headed into the Aragon Corkscrew.
Bautista turned up the aggression, trying to counter the pass, but was caught from behind by Bradl. As Bradl and Bautista swapped positions, Rossi was able to break his fourth-place finishing streak, the Italian taking an easy third.
Behind, Bautista beat Bradl for fifth, with Crutchlow taking sixth. Crutchlow’s teammate Bradley Smith finished seventh, ahead of the Ducati duo of Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden. Tenth went to Energy T.I. Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone, who finished ahead of the top CRT pilot, Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro.
With four rounds remaining, Marquez now has 278 points, extending his lead to 39 ahead of Lorenzo. Pedrosa is in third, 59 points behind Marquez, with Rossi in fourth, 93 points back.
The 2013 MotoGP Championship takes a two-week break before heading to Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix Oct. 11-13.
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