The MotoGP grid roll into Aragon this weekend for the last round before the flyaways. With the Championship hotting up and the top two equal on points, exactly what can we expect from the weekend?
Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso head to Aragon equal on points, with Dovizioso in second due to the ‘tie-breaker’ rule. This is notoriously a good track for Marquez, and he claims it to be one of his favourites. He’s taken four pole positions at Aragon – that’s one for each year he has raced in the premier class. If he wants to secure his sixth title, he needs to start breaking away from Dovizioso at the top of the standings. But ‘DesmoDovi’ is on the form of his life at the moment, and is proving to be stiff competition for Marquez.
Ducati have only ever won one race at MotorLand Aragon, and that was in 2010 with Casey Stoner. Dovizioso could well be the one to break that statistic, and become only the second non-Spaniard to win a MotoGP race at the Spanish track. (Stoner was the only non-Spanish rider to win a race at Aragon, in 2010 and 2011. Other non-Spanish riders to win here include Andrea Iannone, Romano Fenati, Miguel Oliveira and Sam Lowes in Moto2 & Moto3.)
Honda are by far the most successful manufacturer here, claiming four victories with three different riders. But Jorge Lorenzo does well around here too, winning in 2014 and 2015. Now he’s getting to grips with the Ducati, a podium definitely cannot be ruled out.
Of course the main news of the week is that Valentino Rossi will return to try and race at MotorLand, after breaking his leg in a training accident. Well, these racers are a rare breed. He will go out for FP1 tomorrow and a decision will be made on whether or not he will race. This leaves his stand-in, Yamaha World Superbike rider Michael van der Mark sitting awkwardly on the sidelines. His call up to MotoGP on one of the best bikes on the grid was something a lot of people (myself included) were looking forward to seeing, and it may be that he won’t get the chance after all.
We were treated to some pretty special stuff in Misano in the Moto2 class. We witnessed the first ever Swiss 1-2, with Dominique Aegerter crossing the line ahead of seasoned rider Thomas Luthi. Hafizh Syahrin took an emotional third place, his first podium since Sepang 2012. With the points gap between Franco Morbidelli and Luthi currently standing at a mere nine points, Morbidelli will have to do some serious work this weekend to push clear once more.
Alex Marquez will make his return after being ruled out of Misano due to injury. This is his most consistent Moto2 season since moving to the class, and cannot be ruled out of the podium fight along with Aegerter who will have his new found winning confidence on his side.
In Moto3, Joan Mir now has a comfortable lead in the championship of sixty one points over Romano Fenati. You can never rule either of these two out, nor Aron Canet, Jorge Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio who are all starting to find some consistency.
Enea Bastiannini is finally getting to grips with his Estrella Galicia 0,0 machine, and a win is surely on the cards before the season wraps up.
Previews are always hard to write, because who really knows what’s going to happen? Just know that we’ll be treated to some fantastic racing across all three classes as the Championship draws ever nearer to the finale in Valencia.
