In an epic finish that saw the two riders separated by just 4 hundredths of a second, Enea Bastianini was gritty in beating soon to be teammate Francesco Bagnaia to the line to win the Grand Prix of Aragon.
Bastianini’s victory meant that Bagnaia would not convert his pole position to another victory and claim his fifth victory in a row.
The start saw a good launch for Bagnaia. But further back, it was Brad Binder and Marc Marquez who got exceptional launches off the line to gain a handful of places going into turn 1.
But disaster struck Marquez who was making his comeback after injury a few corners later. The Spaniard had a big moment going out of turn 4 as he seemed to lost momentum that resulted in Yamaha’s top man Fabio Quartararo going straight into the back of him. The knock sent the Frenchman down to the ground with his Yamaha bike giving him a good whack. The rider was left with abrasions on his abdomen.
The Repsol Honda of Marc Marquez was badly damaged as he slowly came out of turn 7 only to unintentionally run into Takaaki Nakagami who was left on the floor with bikes coming behind him at speed. Luckily everyone managed to avoid the Japanese rider in what was a scary moment.
Marquez went onto the retire from the race and later explained that an issue with the rear holeshot device made his bike lock to the left.
As the race went on, the top 3 consisted of Bagnaia, Bastianini and Brad Binder who was holding on to the last podium place.
Close behind the pack were Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Martin, Johann Zarco and Luca Marini.
Bagnaia looked to pull clear but Bastianini was having none of it as he continued to reel in the factory Ducati rider. It was going to be a repeat of their Misano battle.
The gap between Bagnaia and Bastianini kept varying but was within 7 tenths. Briefly Enea had the lead but went wide into turn 13.
The last few laps saw an amazing fight for the lead as both the riders were ever so close.
Meanwhile behind them, Aleix Espargaro managed to get his Aprilia ahead of Brad Binder’s KTM on the inside into turn 1 to get to the podium spot with two laps to go.
Enea continued his pursuit of the victory as he came inchingly close on the back straight on a couple of occasions but was not able to pass his fellow Italian rider.
Going into turn 7 on the final lap, Bastianini made a sensational sneak pass on Bagnaia to inherit the lead and held on until the last corner. Bagnaia was tantalizing close but he would hold on to second place.
The result means that Ducati will win the constructor’s championship this year with 5 races to go.
Fabio Quartararo still leads the title race but with a diminished lead of 10 points from Francesco Bagnaia as a result of his crash. Aleix Espargaro sits in third place 16 points off the lead. Well in the mix is Enea Bastianini too as he sits in fourth with a gap of 48 points to Quartararo.
The next race sees the riders head to the Twin Ring Motegi for the Grand Prix of Japan.
Image credit: MotoGP Media
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