Márquez wins Aragón as Pedrosa goes down

It was time for the third Spanish outing for the riders contesting the 2013 FIM MotoGP World Championship, with the fourth annual visit to the modern Aragón facility. Spanish riders would no doubt please spectators with their continued race domination.

Repsol Honda’s 20-year-old premier class rookie Marc Márquez was leading the championship by 34 points, and team-mate Dani Pedrosa was tied on points with works Yamaha man Jorge Lorenzo. Only one of the season’s thirteen events had been won by someone else. MotorLand Aragón provides a fast and challenging circuit, somewhere that both Márquez and Pedrosa had previously been victorious, along with just one other man from the current MotoGP line-up: Moto2 graduate Andrea Iannone.

In qualifying it was all very close at the top of the timesheets, headed by the four full works riders for Honda and Yamaha. Márquez was on pole position, with Pedrosa third; and Lorenzo was second, his team-mate and winner at Assen, Valentino Rossi, taking fourth. The customer Honda and Yamaha machinery followed on, with Stefan Bradl fifth for LCR Honda, then Álvaro Bautistá (Gresini Honda), Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith (both Tech 3 Yamaha).

Ducati pilots took four of the next five places, split by the usual CRT pace-setter Aleix Espargaró. The red-liveried works riders, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden, were in positions nine and eleven, respectively, with Espargaró tenth on his Aspar ART. Then it was the Pramac Ducati pair, with Iannone in P12, followed by Yonny Hernández, the Colombian promoted from the CRT ranks to replace the permanently absent team leader Ben Spies.

P14 was taken by Hiroshi Aoyama on the FTR-Kawasaki, for the Avintia Blusens team, and he was followed by Danilo Petrucci, Randy de Puniet, Colin Edwards, Claudio Corti and Héctor Barberá. Paul Bird Motorsport rider Michael Laverty took over the ART from Hernández, taking P20, with occasional GP substitute rider Damian Cudlin joining the team on the PBM-ART bike. Bryan Staring was in P21, followed by another new face. Former World Supersport race winner Luca Scassa, also a successful Superstock and Superbike racer, was substituting for Cardion AB Motoracing man Karel Abraham, with the grid of 24 completed by Lukáš Pešek and Cudlin.

Conditions for the race were dry and bright but also breezy. Márquez and Lorenzo opted for the softer compound front Bridgestone tyres, whereas Pedrosa went for the harder choice. Before the warm-up lap, Barberá had a problem which meant he had to be pushed off the grid, and he would ultimately start from the pits after having to swap to his alternate bike. At the front, Lorenzo got away ahead of the Hondas, with Pedrosa second until the right-handed curve at turn two, where Márquez went past. Rossi and Bradl followed, then Crutchlow; but the Englishman ran a bit wide at the final turn sixteen left-hand loop, where Bautistá went through. Smith was eighth, with Espargaró initially ninth, ahead of the Ducati group.

Meanwhile, a lap one incident had already taken place at turn twelve, a left-hander after a fast descent. Racing with de Puniet and Corti for fifteenth position, Laverty was tipping in for the corner when he was hit from behind by Petrucci, with both men crashing. Scassa was also involved, but was able to continue. Therefore, at the end of the lap, the runners in the latter half of the field were in the order: Dovizioso, Hayden, Iannone, Hernández, Aoyama, de Puniet, Corti, Edwards, Staring, Pešek, Cudlin, Barberá and Scassa.

With one lap down, Lorenzo had already established a one-second advantage, and pursuers Márquez, Pedrosa, Rossi and Bradl were also clear of the following pack. The Repsol duo were able to respond to Jorge’s charge, however, with Pedrosa setting fastest lap, and the Yamaha man’s lead being cut to somewhere in the 0.6s to 0.7s range during the second lap. This was down to 0.4s after four laps, with Pedrosa right on the tail of second man Márquez.

Turn seven is a downhill right-hander leading onto a short straight, and this section saw Pedrosa move through to second, braking on the inside line. Aragón has a particularly long back straight, following on from a left-hander, and leading into the two lefts at turns sixteen and seventeen. Honda acceleration helped the lightweight Pedrosa close right in on Lorenzo here, with Dani looking threatening on a tighter line for the final loop. However, the next action was to come at turn twelve.

The three leaders were clear of Rossi and Bradl, and Márquez was again in attacking mode behind Pedrosa. Approaching the corner, Marc got so close that he had to run straight on, with Dani taking the corner but then suddenly losing the rear and being launched into a highside crash. It had been very close, but there hadn’t been any apparent contact between the pair. However, it emerged that Pedrosa’s Honda had just been clipped, specifically a cable for the traction control system: enough to cause his crash.

The unlucky Pedrosa was collected by ambulance and taken to the medical centre, but had not sustained serious injury. Meanwhile, Lorenzo continued in the lead, and Márquez was back on track in second and now 1.9s behind the Yamaha. Rossi was now third, closely followed at this point by Bradl, Bautistá and Crutchlow. There was a gap back to Smith, who had fought back to head Dovizioso and the rest, with Espargaró now back behind Hayden and Iannone.

It was going to be between Lorenzo and Márquez, with the Honda man progressively cutting back the leader’s advantage. Before too long they were together and, on the approach to turn twelve, Jorge apparently let Marc go past on the inside line, no doubt to give himself the opportunity to assess the youngster’s strengths and weaknesses when it came to the Aragón track. At this stage they were over six-seconds clear of the next group of riders.

Márquez took the lead out to around 0.4s or 0.5s, sometimes a bit more, but was not getting away. With four laps remaining there was about 0.3s between them, but then on the back straight Lorenzo was not too close any more. The last three laps saw the margin growing as Marc had enough in hand to take his sixth MotoGP race victory, with Jorge secure in second but obviously losing more ground in the championship chase. Meanwhile, it was thought that Pedrosa had been quite likely on course for victory himself, looking pretty racy and having surely made the right tyre choice, but now his chances seemed virtually finished.

Rossi had headed a lively battle, with Bautistá in the thick of the action. The Spaniard had been looking to attack Bradl but then he made a mistake, and soon after Crutchlow was through to fifth at the left-handed turn five. Later, Álvaro would recover this position, going on to also get through on Bradl. In fourth, Bautistá had attacked Rossi for a podium position, making a successful move on the inside at turn fifteen, the downhill left-hander onto the back straight.

With Crutchlow only able to tag on behind, the late stages saw Bautistá heading Rossi and Bradl. Rossi attacked to regain his position at turns six and seven, with Bautistá fighting back but the Italian making it through for third place. When the Spaniard then had to defend from Bradl on the final lap, Valentino secured the spot. Stefan passed Álvaro on the inside at the turn one left-hander, with the Gresini rider trying to get the place back at turn four, but running wide. However, Bradl himself went wide at turn five and that just about settled it: Bautistá fourth, then Bradl and Crutchlow.

The following riders were well spaced out by the flag, with Smith seventh, then Dovizioso, Hayden, Iannone and Espargaró, with his twelfth CRT win of the season. Hernández improved on his best CRT result with P12 on the Ducati, ahead of final points-scorers de Puniet, Aoyama and Corti; and then it was Edwards, Scassa, Staring and Pešek. Cudlin and Barberá had both joined the ranks of the non-finishers.

Dani Pedrosa’s MotoGP record, where minor doses of bad luck have on occasion proved quite costly, continued at Aragón. With four races remaining in 2013, and now 59 points behind, Dani can only hope to take the title if he wins every time out - and providing Marc Márquez only has a couple of podium results at the same time. Having taken his seventieth premier class podium result, Jorge Lorenzo does have a better chance, but would probably also have to rely on one major error from the accomplished 20-year-old. Is there enough pressure on Márquez to cause such an error?

Standings after fourteen races: Márquez 278; Lorenzo 239; Pedrosa 219; Rossi 185; Crutchlow 156; Bradl 135; Bautistá 125; Dovizioso 112; Hayden 102; Smith 80 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 316; Yamaha 290; Ducati 123; ART 78; FTR-Kawasaki 48; Ioda Suter-BMW 23; PBM-ART 3; FTR-Honda 2.