Espargaro takes point as Marquez falls during dramatic Aragon GP

Moto GP 2022, Round 15, Gran Premio de Aragon

ARAGON: A dramatic and complicated Aragon GP saw Marc Marquez’s first race back cut short after a promising start while Pol Espargaro worked hard to overcome adversity and end in the points.

A lightning start from Marc Marquez saw the Repsol Honda Team rider jump from 13th on the grid to sixth within the opening corners. His race would sadly not go much further as a rear-end slide at Turn 3 caused contact with Fabio Quartararo. This in turn left a piece of Quartararo’s bike lodged in the rear end of Marquez’s Honda which caused a subsequent mechanical issue and contact with LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami. As a result, Marquez pulled into the pits at the end of the first lap – ending his return race early.

Pol Espargaro walked away from a complicated weekend in Aragon with a single point for 15th place. Taking evasive action to avoid Nakagami on the first lap left the Repsol Honda Team rider playing catchup for the rest of the race. Working to set a steady and consistent pace, Espargaro battled inside the group and reclaimed 15th place with just a few laps to go. Now that the Aragon weekend is behind him, Espargaro is aiming to rally at Honda’s home race in Motegi.

For the first time since 2019, the MotoGP World Championship is set to race at the Japanese Grand Prix. It is a welcome return to home turf for the Repsol Honda Team as the Honda RC213V gets ready to delight Honda’s home crowd. The MotoGP paddock will immediately head for Japan, the middle race in this triple-header as they power towards the end of the season.

Marc Marquez (DNF)

“I got a really good start to the race and found myself fighting for the top five, instincts took over when the lights went out. But then in Turn 3, I lost the rear a little bit so I closed the gas and the problem was then that Fabio was super close to me. This is normal, it’s racing to be close in the first laps and to try a move in the change of direction, we were just unlucky to have this contact with Fabio. Then everything started, in Turn, 5 I felt something strange, and I didn’t really know what was going on fully. In Turn, 7 Nakagami overtook me and went wide but when I went to engage the rear device, I felt like the rear was locking. Then everything happened at once as the bike was moving to the left with this locking and I found myself touching Taka. After this, I retired. I went to apologize to Taka and his team because his race was ended by the situation we had. My apologies to him and Fabio.”

Pol Espargaro (15th)

“It was a really tough race today and we didn’t have the speed we needed to do something more. I haven’t felt comfortable on the bike all weekend and we had a lot of distance to try and recover today. The first lap was very complicated, there was carbon fiber everywhere and I had to stand up to avoid Taka. Tonight I go home and then tomorrow we get on the plane to Japan so we will switch our mind to Japan mode, I’m looking forward to looking seeing all the Japanese fans again.”

Aragon Grand Prix – Race Results

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Points	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	BASTIANINI ENEA	23	ITA	25	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	41’35.462
2	BAGNAIA FRANCESCO	62	ITA	20	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	0.042
3	ESPARGARO ALEIX	41	SPA	16	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	6.139
4	BINDER BRAD	33	RSA	13	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	6.379
5	MILLER JACK	43	AUS	11	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	6.964
6	MARTIN JORGE	89	SPA	10	Pramac Racing	Ducati	12.03
7	MARINI LUCA	10	ITA	9	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	12.474
8	ZARCO JOHANN	5	FRA	8	Pramac Racing	Ducati	12.655
9	RINS ALEX	42	SPA	7	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki	12.702
10	BEZZECCHI MARCO	73	ITA	6	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	16.15
11	OLIVEIRA MIGUEL	88	POR	5	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	17.071
12	MARQUEZ ALEX	73	SPA	4	LCR Honda	Honda	18.463
13	VINALES MAVERICK	12	SPA	3	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	18.73
14	CRUTCHLOW CAL	35	GBR	2	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	20.09
15	ESPARGARO POL	44	SPA	1	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	27.588
16	GARDNER REMY	87	AUS	0	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	28.805
17	MORBIDELLI FRANCO	21	ITA	0	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	40.422
18	BINDER DARRYN	40	RSA	0	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	31.33
19	DI GIANNANTONIO FABIO	49	ITA	0	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	31.595
20	FERNANDEZ RAUL	25	SPA	0	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	36.16
21	MARQUEZ MARC	93	SPA	0	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	DNF
22	QUARTARARO FABIO	20	FRA	0	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	DNF
23	NAKAGAMI TAKAAKI	30	JPN	0	LCR Honda	Honda	DNF

Rider Standings

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Points	Team	Constructor
1	QUARTARARO FABIO	20	FRA	211	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha
2	BAGNAIA FRANCESCO	62	ITA	201	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati
3	ESPARGARO ALEIX	41	SPA	194	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia
4	BASTIANINI ENEA	23	ITA	163	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati
5	MILLER JACK	43	AUS	134	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati
6	ZARCO JOHANN	5	FRA	133	Pramac Racing	Ducati
7	BINDER BRAD	33	RSA	128	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM
8	RINS ALEX	42	SPA	108	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki
9	MARTIN JORGE	89	SPA	104	Pramac Racing	Ducati
10	VINALES MAVERICK	12	SPA	104	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia
11	OLIVEIRA MIGUEL	88	POR	95	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM
12	MARINI LUCA	10	ITA	91	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati
13	MIR JOAN	36	SPA	77	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki
14	BEZZECCHI MARCO	73	ITA	74	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati
15	MARQUEZ MARC	93	SPA	60	Repsol Honda Team	Honda
16	NAKAGAMI TAKAAKI	30	JPN	46	LCR Honda	Honda
17	ESPARGARO POL	44	SPA	43	Repsol Honda Team	Honda
18	MARQUEZ ALEX	73	SPA	39	LCR Honda	Honda
19	MORBIDELLI FRANCO	21	ITA	26	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha
20	DI GIANNANTONIO FABIO	49	ITA	23	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati
21	DOVIZIOSO ANDREA	4	ITA	15	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha
22	BINDER DARRYN	40	RSA	10	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha
23	GARDNER REMY	87	AUS	9	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM
24	FERNANDEZ RAUL	25	SPA	8	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM
25	BRADL STEFAN	6	GER	2	Repsol Honda Team	Honda
26	CRUTCHLOW CAL	35	GBR	2	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha

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September 18, 2022