Untouchable Marc Marquez in class of his own to win Aragon MotoGP

Marc Marquez delivered a masterclass in dominant riding to notch up his eighth MotoGP World Championship win of the season in the Aragon MotoGP to move ever closer to the 2019 title.

The Spaniard has been in exceptional form throughout the weekend on home turf and he’d prove just as dominant in the race, Marquez getting the perfect hole-shot to lead from turn one before simply pulling away.

More than a second clear of the pack even before the opening lap had finished, Marquez pulled clear of an entertaining scrap for the remaining podium positions to reel off yet another exceptional victory.

Andrea Dovizioso kept the overall lead to Marquez down to fewer than three figures with a sterling charge to second place, though the margin between the two distant title contenders has stretched to 98 points.

The Italian started down in tenth place but with the Ducati looking stronger than Yamaha in race conditions – not least in a straight line as he completed the majority of his overtakes down the long back straight - he picked his way back up to second place, topping it off with a late overtake on Maverick Vinales.

Having shown strong mid-race pace on the Yamaha, Vinales faded in the closing stages to lose out on the final podium spot to Jack Miller, the Australian fighting back to third having been overtaken by the Spaniard on lap eight.

Despite losing out on the podium as Yamaha’s desperate top speed disadvantage was laid embarrassingly bare, Vinales’ fourth consolidates his status as top M1 rider in the overall standings. 

Espargaro stars as Rins pays price for Morbidelli tangle

Similarly, Fabio Quartararo couldn’t stay with the leaders as he finished a distant fifth place, finishing ahead of Cal Crutchlow, who just got the better of an inspired Aleix Espargaro. The Spaniard made good on his top five starting position to deliver comfortably Aprilia’s best result of the 2019 season in seventh.

Valentino Rossi endured a sobering afternoon in a distant and lonely eighth place, only just getting the better of Alex Rins despite the Spaniard going off on lap one when a late lunge on Franco Morbidelli resulted in the Italian barrelling out of the race.

Dropping to 17th before then being hit with a long lap penalty for the indiscretion, Suzuki’s Rins nonetheless fought back to ninth position.

Takaaki Nakagami hauled himself into contention late on to snatch a top ten finish from Andrea Iannone on the second Aprilia and a struggling Danilo Petrucci, who maintained his perfect scoring record but finished well off the pace down in 12th.

Miguel Oliveira, Joan Mir – who ran off early on – and Tito Rabat completed the points’ finishers, denying Pecco Bagnaia and MotoGP returnee Mika Kallio, the sole factory KTM in the race after Pol Espargaro was forced out through injury.

Jorge Lorenzo started well to run as high as 12th at one stage but quickly dropped down the order again, just avoiding the ignominy of last by crossing the line in 20th of 21 finishers.