Honda's Marc Marquez dominated his way to the chequered flag right from the opening lap of the 2019 MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix. The Aragon GP marked the five-time premier class world champion's 200th Grand Prix start in the sport, and Marquez certainly knew how to bring it home. With another win under his belt for the season, the 26-year-old now leads the points table by 98 points, and the next round in Thailand just might be the championship decider for the 2019 season.
On the podium - Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso and Jack Miller
Marquez started on pole after setting a qualifying time of 1m47.009s with a three second lead over the very impressive Fabio Quartararo on the Petronas Yamaha. Marquez held on to the lead right from Turn 1 and the field was not even remotely close to the rider to build an competition. By the end of Lap 1, Marquez built a one second lead over rest of the grid and maintained his pace through the race.
Quartararo started second and showed impressive pace in the initial stages of the race. The rider though soon lost his position on Turn 12 to the fourth starting Jack Miller of Pramac Ducati after he passed Yamaha's Maverick Vinales to take P3. Miller was aggressive from the opening lap itself and soon slotted into P2 right behind Marquez. The latter though had built his lead further by two seconds by the end of Lap 4.
Andrea Dovizioso grabbed P2 from Maverick Vinales with three laps to go
The third place Quartararo was now feeling the heat from Vinales who powered through the satellite rider on Lap 5 at Turn 16 to make his way into the top three. Vinales showed impressive pace and was now looking to pass Miller for P2. However, the Ducati cleared carried more speed and it wasn't until Lap 8 that Vinales managed to pass Miller at Turn 4.
Meanwhile, Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati had climbed his way to P4 from P10. By Lap 16, the Ducati rider managed to pass Miller to take P3 and was now hunting Vinales to take P2. With five laps to go, Dovizioso finally found the opportunity to pass the Yamaha as Vinales made a slight mistake on the Turn 14 chicane, allowing the Ducati to clear through. There was no redemption for the factory Yamaha rider, however, as he lost pace and dropped further to P4 as Miller passed him once again on the final lap to finish on the podium.
Jack Miller passed Vinales to take P3 at Turn 1 of the final lap
Maquez, had built a six second lap by the closing stages, away from all the action happening below and won his 200th grand prix, 4.836s clear of Dovizioso. Miller crossed the chequered flag about a second and a half later, while Vinales finished fourth 0.381s behind the Pramac Ducati. Coming in at a lonely P5 was Quartararo after a promising start, ahead of LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow and Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro, after the latter riders battled for most of the race for P6.
Yamaha's Valentino Rossi finished at P8, while Suzuki's Alex Rins recovered to P9 after a long-lap penalty was handed to him for sliding into Franco Morbidelli of Petronas Yamaha on the opening lap. LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami finished on P10 after an aggressive fight with Andrea Iannone of Aprilia and Danilo Petrucci of Ducati. Tech3' Miguel Oliveira was placed 13th, ahead of Suzuki rider Joan Mir, while Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat took the final point.
Pramac Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia finished 16th, followed by KTM's Mika Kallio who replaced Johann Zarco at KTM for the rest of the season. Avintia Ducati's Karel Abraham finished 18th ahead of Bradley Smith of Aprilia. Honda's Jorge Lorenzo seemed in contention for points early on in the race, but finished in 20th place, ahead of Tech3's Hafizh Syahrin.
Apart from Morbidelli, KTM's Pol Espargaro was a non-starter in the Aragon GP, having fractured his wrist in a crash on Saturday.
