Jorge Martin made an early escape to take an unchallenged win in Sunday’s Aragon Grand Prix, extending his lead in the Moto3 world championship. The Spaniard led from start to finish as a fierce battle raged behind with Marco Bezzecchi claiming a hugely significant second place to keep him in championship contention.
The day couldn’t have got off to a worse start for Bezzecchi who was handed a 12-place grid penalty for irresponsible riding during qualifying, sending him back to 18th on the grid. With several others penalised, only polesitter Martin and second-placed Jaume Masia lined up where they qualified but even that was put in doubt by a crash for Masia in morning warm-up. Despite a cracked collarbone, the 17-year-old bravely took the start just two hours after his accident.
With his likeliest challenger back on row six, Martin made a blistering getaway off the start line and immediately opened up a 1.5 second lead by the end of lap one. Bezzecchi was making rapid progress, gaining seven spots on the opening lap and aided by the unrivalled straight-line speed of his KTM, the Italian had charged through to second by lap five. Any hopes of an unlikely win were long gone though, with Martin 4.2s up the road.
Instead, Marco had to ensure he limited the damage to his title prospects and that looked easier said than done, especially when an off-track excursion triggered by an aggressive move by Marcos Ramirez relegated him back to eighth. To his credit, the PruestelGP rider kept his head and navigated his way back through the pack to secure 20 points for second, resisting a fast-closing Enea Bastianini on the final lap.
Fabio Di Giannantonio took fourth ahead of Ramirez while a late crash for Gabriel Rodrigo promoted Tatsuki Suzuki to sixth. Albert Arenas was seventh ahead of Adam Norrodin while Masia somehow rode through the pain barrier to finish ninth, holding off John McPhee.
Moto3 Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon (Result)
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