09/12/2021 |
Christina Bulpett |
MotoGP
Image: GeeBee Pictures
Ducati rider Pecco Bagnaia showed the performance of his life at MotorLand Aragón on Sunday, defending a race-long battle with Marc Marquez for his first MotoGP victory.
The Repsol Honda rider was on the hunt from the start and stormed through from second place. No fewer than seven attempts in the last laps left the Spaniard to be desired, with Joan Mir securing the final podium celebration in third place.
Johann Zarco was the only driver who opted for the Michelin center front tire on the grid, with the entire field using the soft rear in addition to the hard front combination. Maverick Viñales looks back on his first race on the Aprilia when Bagnaia led the front row dominated by Ducati Lenovo.
Desmosedici’s performance won when the lights went out and Bagnaia kept his lead, but the lightning-fast Marquez was right in second. Fabio Quartararo was driving in the opposite direction when he dropped to sixth in the middle of the first lap, Aleix Espargaro and Mir picked up the broken pieces. Alex Marquez finished turn five and Jake Dixon started his second adventure in the top class by advancing on his teammate Valentino Rossi.
The joy was short-lived for the Briton when he retired at turn nine.
Jorge Martin was next to beat the championship leader, Brad Binder battled the Frenchman for seventh place as the third lap kicked off.
Marquez refined Bagnaia up front, the gap was less than two tenths, Jack Miller was another half a second behind and finished third. Alex Rins is making his way through the field to 13th place after his dismal qualifying performance on the track that he won last year.
Iker Lecuona was the leader at KTM on lap four and moved up to eighth, just ahead of the South African when Miguel Oliveira and Danilo Petrucci were on the edge of the points. Zarco’s tire game didn’t pay off in the early stages from the 14th.
Enea Bastianini’s impressive weekend continued with Avintia just below the top 10, Takaaki Nakagami, Rins and Pol Espargaro just behind.
Bagnaia accelerated the pace as he tried to break the imposing figure of Marquez behind him. The chasers expanded as the race progressed, with Lecuona defeating the championship leader at the start of the seventh lap.
Quartararo faded in the course of the race, the Frenchman was in ninth place after only a third of the race distance and was more than a second behind the pace of the leader when Bastianini checked. There were similar problems for the second Monster Yamaha when Cal Crutchlow circulated in 17th place. The battle between Avintia and Yamaha was repeated in the overall standings before Viñales and Rossi entered the fight with Luca Marini at the bottom of the field.
I started to get close to Espargaro on lap 11 in the battle for fourth place, with the Suzuki running a little faster than the Aprilia and the Ducati ahead of them. Miller drops to fifth at halftime after running far on the last corner. I took advantage of when Espargaro was distracted by the Ducati and took third place on lap 12, but with more than three seconds behind Marquez, was that as far as he could?
Bastianini won the fight with 10 laps to go just before the more experienced M1 hit back at corner one, Nakagami joined the fight as it slipped to 10th place and the Ducati rookie dropped back, but not for long.
The standings were shuffled on lap 15 as Binder defeated Lecuona, Bastianini hit back in the LCR, and Crutchlow advanced on Zarco. Lecuona ran hot into the reverse corkscrew with seven to go when he dropped back from seventh to outside the top 10.
The pair in front were inseparable when the sixth round began. Marquez watched the young contender carefully as he chased for his first win.
Binder moved Martin up to sixth place, while the countdown of the race decreased, Bastianini moved back two places to Quartararo.
With four to go, the eight-time world champion fought hard with the Desmosedici, Bagnaia seemed to handle the pressure with ease, but when the grip came into question, Marquez pulled the train. With a lunge at turn five the next time, the lead shifted only for seconds before the Spaniard took a second at turn 15. Bagnaia held on to keep control as the penultimate lap began.
The fight continued as the climax approached, the pair repeatedly switching positions during the long 5km route, but each block pass was reversed by the Ducati. The battle for victory was head-to-head as the final half-lap took place on the delight of the factory Ducati garage.
Mir finished third after another stellar performance from Espargaro, while Miller solidified fifth. Bastianini shone in sixth place, Binder, Quartarao, Martin and Nakagami completed the top 10. A somewhat disappointed Lecuona came in 11th from Rins, the second Repsol Honda from Espargaro, Oliveira and Petrucci, Crutchlow missed a point by six tenths by a second ahead of Marco, Viñales, Rossi and Marini.
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