Marquez storms to convincing Aragon victory

Marc Marquez extended his MotoGP World Championship lead with a come-from-behind victory in the Aragon Grand Prix.

The factory Honda rider, who dominated qualifying, gave his rivals a glimmer of hope with an early error, but fought back to dominate the 23-lap race.

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo made a strong start from the outside of the front row before Maverick Viñales (Suzuki) surprised he and Marquez with an audacious move for the lead.

Marquez passed Lorenzo and Viñales on consecutive laps to lead after Lap 2.

However, he dropped to fifth next time around after nearly losing the front of the bike at Turn 7, handing control of the race back to Viñales.

Rossi took the lead on Lap 8 before an error from Viñales gifted second place back to the recovering Marquez on Lap 10.

The Spaniard wasted no time in running down Rossi (Yamaha) on Lap 12, making the move at Turn 15, just as he had done for all the others.

Lorenzo, who had by now passed and shaken off Viñales, took second position off his team-mate Rossi on Lap 19.

The Italian made a desperate lunge at Lorenzo at Turn 12 on the penultimate lap, but was far too deep and that moment settled the dice.

Marquez, meanwhile, had cleared out to a 2.7s victory, his first on Spanish soil since the 2014 finale in Valencia.

“I did a mistake when I was leading,” admitted the 23-year-old.

“I nearly lost the front and then I said, ‘Okay, stay calm, warm up the front tyre,’ because I was on the hard one.

“I’m really happy because in the last few races Rossi was gaining points but now we’ve stopped this and this is good.”

The 2013 and 2014 world champion now leads the standings by 52 points with 100 on offer across the final four races of the season.

Viñales finished fourth, ahead of Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), Dani Pedrosa (Honda), Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki), and Pol Espargaro (Tech3 Yamaha).

The two Gresini Aprilias of Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl rounded out the top 10.

Nicky Hayden, the 2006 world champion, picked up a point standing in for injured Marc VDS Honda rider Jack Miller.

In Moto2, Sam Lowes led for all but the opening half a lap, while Australian Remy Gardner finished 19th from 25th on the grid.

Brad Binder secured the Moto3 World Championship with four races to spare.

The South African made a decisive final-lap move from fourth to second after a long-time battle with Jorge Navarro, Enea Bastianini, and Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Navarro hung on to deny Binder a sixth win of the season by just 0.030s.

MotoGP takes two weekends off before the final flyaway races of the season, starting in Japan from October 14-16.

Result: MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix

Position	Rider	Team/Bike	Time/Gap
1	Marc Marquez	Honda	23 Laps
2	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	+2.74s
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	+5.98
4	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	+8.23
5	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	+13.22
6	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	+17.07
7	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	+18.52
8	Pol Espargaro	Tech3 Yamaha	+19.43
9	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	+23.07
10	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	+27.89
11	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	+32.44
12	Michele Pirro	Ducati	+35.03
13	Hector Barbera	Avintia Ducati	+36.22
14	Eugene Laverty	Aspar Ducati	+37.62
15	Nicky Hayden	Marc VDS Honda	+40.50
16	Yonny Hernandez	Aspar Ducati	+43.90
17	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	+56.74
18	Loris Baz	Avintia Ducati	+59.68
19	Scott Redding	Pramac Ducati	+1:34.12
DNF	Tito Rabat	Marc VDS Honda	Retirement
DNS	Alex Lowes	Tech3 Yamaha	Withdrawn
DNS	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	Withdrawn

Championship Standings

Position	Rider	Points
1	Marc Marquez	248
2	Valentino Rossi	196
3	Jorge Lorenzo	182
4	Dani Pedrosa	155
5	Maverick Vinales	149
6	Cal Crutchlow	105
7	Andrea Dovizioso	104
8	Andrea Iannone	96
9	Pol Espargaro	96
10	Hector Barbera	84
11	Eugene Laverty	71
12	Aleix Espargaro	69
13	Scott Redding	55
14	Alvaro Bautista	54
15	Danilo Petrucci	50
16	Stefan Bradl	49
17	Jack Miller	42
18	Bradley Smith	42
19	Michele Pirro	36
20	Tito Rabat	27
21	Loris Baz	24
22	Yonny Hernandez	13
23	Alex Lowes	3
24	Nicky Hayden	1