Marc Marquez put an end to Jorge Lorenzo's fight back in the
Championship race as he claimed the victory in Aragon ahead of his
compatriot. As the sun baked down at the Aragon circuit and the wind picked up, the three Championship protagonists lined up on the front row of the grid with Marquez leading Lorenzo and Pedrosa. However as the 23-lap race started, it was the Yamaha rider who got the jump on the Honda duo while Valentino Rossi slotted into fourth place ahead of Stefan Bradl and Cal Crutchlow.
A crash on the opening lap saw Danilo Petrucci, Michael Laverty and Luca Scassa all down in the dirt and out of the race.
At the front, Lorenzo, needing to make up 34 points in the Championship fight, put the hammer down, edging out a lead while Marquez and Pedrosa struggled to find their rhythm in the early stages and Bradl was all over the back of Rossi in the battle for fourth.
It wasn't long, though, before the Hondas were in the race with Pedrosa setting back-to-back fastest lap times before taking second off Marquez. A lap later and the birthday boy was attacking Lorenzo for the lead but while he was fighting the Yamaha, he also had to fight off Marquez in what had become a thrilling three-way battle for the lead.
Disaster struck on lap six when Marquez had to run wide to avoid hitting the back of Pedrosa's RC213V at Turn 12. Despite the two not touching, seconds later the 28-year-old suffered a massive high side where he was thrown into the air before landing on his hands and knees. Although Pedrosa initially walked off the track, he was soon loaded on a stretcher and taken to the track's medical centre with a "suspected knee injury."
Honda's woes gave Lorenzo a bit of breathing room as he pulled away by almost two seconds ahead over Marquez. Behind the leading duo, the fight for third heated up as Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista caught the back of Rossi and Bradl.
Hector Barbera, who started the race on his back-up Blusens machine, joined the list of retirements as he was forced to park with a technical problem.
The tussle at the front, though, was far from over as lap after lap Marquez ate into Lorenzo's lead until he finally caught the reigning World Champion with 10 laps to go with the 20-year-old making his move almost immediately at Turn 12. The Championship leader looked to pull away from his main rival, however, Lorenzo was having none of it and dogged his compatriot.
Behind the leaders, Bautista went through on Rossi for third at Turn 15 but the nine-time Champ didn't give up easily and tried to fight back into Turn 1 only for Bautista to leave his braking very late. Bradl and Crutchlow lined up behind, waiting in hope for a mistake from those ahead.
Back at the front, Lorenzo's appeared to bow out of the fight when with three to go he dropped to almost a full second behind Marquez. Kept honest but by no means under threat, Marquez raced to his sixth victory of the season, extending his lead in the Championship to 39 points over second-placed Lorenzo.
Rossi completed the podium after a thrilling tussle in the final two laps with Bautista that saw Bradl get involved in the mix, which helped Rossi pull away. Bautista was fourth ahead of Bradl and Crutchlow.
Aleix Espargaro brought his Power Electronics Aspar home in 11th place to win the CRT battle.
RESULTS
01 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 42'03.459
02 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing +1.356
03 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha Factory Racing +12.927
04 Alvaro BAUTISTA GO&FUN Honda Gresini +13.787
05 Stefan BRADL LCR Honda MotoGP +13.973
06 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +14.662
07 Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +31.220
08 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team +40.671
09 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team +53.413
10 Andrea IANNONE Energy T.I. Pramac Racing +55.067
11 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar +58.001
12 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ignite Pramac Racing +1'05.513
13 Randy DE PUNIET Power Electronics Aspar +1'06.589
14 Hiroshi AOYAMA Avintia Blusens +1'08.674
15 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing +1'09.130
16 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing +1'12.041
17 Luca SCASSA Cardion AB Motoracing +1'45.152
18 Bryan STARING GO&FUN Honda Gresini +1'45.228
19 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project +1'45.583
Not Classified
Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens 15 Laps
Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 18 Laps
Damian CUDLIN Paul Bird Motorsport 20 Laps
Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 0 Lap
Michael LAVERTY Paul Bird Motorsport 0 Lap
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