Marquez dominates to claim win in Aragon Sprint Race

Marc Marquez claimed the Aragon Sprint victory in his Gresini Ducati bike after a 1042-day winless drought, dominating the race from start to finish.

A switch-up in the standings saw Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) snatch Francesco Bagnaia’s (Ducati Lenovo Team) championship lead, as he secured a second-place finish after an early overtake on Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3).

Bagnaia suffered in the blistering Aragon heat, tumbling from the second row down to ninth after a poor performance saw him lose crucial points in the title fight.

Pedro Acosta made an excellent comeback, claiming a podium spot after a few weeks of uncharacteristically “okay” races.

The sprint results saw an all-Spanish podium with Marquez, Martin and Acosta kicking off the race action at the Gran Premio GoPro de Aragon.

MotorLand Aragón brought blistering track temperatures and 17 twists and turns full of exciting racing to fans, kicking off with Marquez topping the timesheets in each session.

The eight-time world champion shocked fans as he put his Gresini Ducati eight-tenths clear of the field on pole position, and he will now start ahead of Acosta and the two championship rivals Martin and Baganaia on Sunday.

A perfect launch off the line saw Marquez storm through Turn 1 to lead the sprint from start to finish, continuing his dominant form so far this weekend.

Meanwhile Martin swiftly jumped Acosta to take second place and begin the hunt for Marquez, but his championship rival fell from fourth to seventh in the opening stages of the sprint.

No matter how much they tried, they could not catch Marquez – he cruised to victory with a 2.9s gap to Martin and ended his drought in style.

After claiming the much-needed victory, Marquez said: “I feel super good, especially it was a very good weekend until now – the race is always the race – you cannot make any mistakes.

“Of course the most important day is tomorrow, so today we celebrate because this feels great, but it’s really important for us to win the sprint race.”

A strange sprint in Aragorn subverted expectation and shook up not only the field, but the rider’s standings – after diving past Acosta, Martin found himself in second place while Bagnaia tumbled down the order.

The reigning world champion suffered from a poor start which dropped him down to sixth, placing him under severe pressure from Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).

To make matters worse, Bagnaia was ruthlessly overtaken by Binder after locking up at the infamous Turn 5 on Lap 5, placing Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) all over his rear.

Bagnaia struggled throughout the sprint in the extreme heat on the low-grip track, losing another place to teammate Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) shortly after.

At the front of the pack, Martin relished in his second-place slot and newfound lead at the top of the rider’s standings despite not being able to pass Marquez.

Filling out the all-Spanish podium in Aragon, Martin claimed he could not catch Marquez no matter his efforts: “I tried to follow Marc – I tried.

“I thought maybe at the end I could do something but it was impossible, so congrats to him but I feel confident that tomorrow I can make a step and find him.”

As most of the grid struggled in the low-grip conditions on the recently resurfaced track, Acosta found himself in the prime spot to make his comeback.

A great start to his rookie campaign saw him feature on the podium, but a fall-off in performance before the summer break gave him much to think about over summer.

Acosta came back in full force as the prodigy he is, rounding off the all-Spanish podium in Aragon after staying in reach of Martin throughout the sprint.

He said: “The rain overnight helped us a bit but it’s true that in the start I made a mistake and I started to spin but anyway the pace was quite fine compared to how it was yesterday.

“We need to be happy for how it was today, and look forward to tomorrow.”

Who else could it have been?

Dominating from the minute he stepped foot on track, Marquez found himself reliving the glory days.

Ending his 1042-day winless drought, Marquez was the quickest man in Aragon in every session so far this weekend.

The Spaniard claimed a glorious, and meaningful, victory on home soil as he held off the new championship leader Martin throughout the weekend.

Although he made a few mistakes, Marquez stormed to victory in one of his most dominant weekends yet, relishing in the low-grip conditions as the rest of the field struggled.

Looking ahead to the feature race tomorrow, Marquez has the potential to pull off the double and taste that victory on a Sunday that he has dreamy about for two long years.

1/11 MARQUEZ WITH A PERFECT START – Marc Marquez got off to a perfect start, launching off the line to keep his pole position heading into the first corner.

3/11 MARQUEZ LEADS AS MARTIN CLIMBS – The looming threat of Jorge Martin lingers behind Marc Marquez as he overtook Pedro Acosta, climbing up to second place on the hunt to snatch the home win.

6/11 BAGNAIA SUFFERS IN SEVENTH – The reigning world champion fell under extreme pressure from Brad Binder, locking up at Turn 5 on Lap 5 and running wide the following lap. The Ducati Lenovo rider seems to be off-balance as he was ruthlessly passed by the Red Bull KTM Factory rider.

9/11 MARQUEZ PULLS AWAY – Marc Marquez cruises through the iconic Aragon circuit in the blistering heat as he pulls 3.8s away from Jorge Martin on Lap 9. A so-far perfect weekend may see the eight-time world champion pick up his first win since 2021 on home soil.

9/11 PECCO TUMBLES DOWN THE ORDER – Enea Bastianini made a bold dive down the struggling Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo, pushing the two down to eighth and ninth place as the latter was forced to give a place back to the Italian champion.

11/11 MARQUEZ CLAIMS VICTORY ON HOME SOIL – Securing his first victory since 2021, Marc Marquez clears his 1042-day winless drought and wins the sprint in Aragon! The eight-time world champion made an excellent comeback drive after a rough two years, rounding off a perfect weekend so far with a dominant performance.