This season, MotoGP visited Aragón in August for the very first time. T’was a scorcher of a weekend, both in temperature and entertainment.
Moto3:
Uriarte had to complete a Long Lap Penalty for being slow on the racing line, and causing a crash.
Joining Uriarte in the Long Lap Club was O’Shea, who had been caught cruising on the line in Practice.
Between Turns Four and Five on the opening lap, Carraro careened off the track. He was fine, seen doing the airbag-RoboCop walk while marshals swarmed around him in concern.
During Lap Three, Buchanan vanished from the Timing Tower. He was found at Turn Ten, having suffered a nasty crash, judging by how still he was lying there at the edge of the tar run-off area. The New-Zealander had to be loaded onto a stretcher and carried away to safety.
We trust he had simply had the wind knocked out of him, and that he would be back on his feet in no time.
Two laps later, Ríos took a speedy tumble upon entering Turn Seventeen, losing his visor along the way. His bike gave him a gentle tap as he tumbled off, before it took a different exit route into the kitty litter.
Quiles, having held the lead of the race hostage for most all of twelve laps, took an unconventionally wide line through one corner on the thirteenth lap, which saw him lose the lead… for a few seconds. He quickly recovered first place, and went back to ferociously defending it.
With three laps to go, Perrone was ordered to drop a position after he allegedly caused some contact. We never got to observe this contact, sadly.
On the final lap, Salmela, with a little nudge from Perrone, went skidding off-track on his back at Turn Seven.
Quiles crossed the line first, claiming his tenth Moto3 race win. Second went the way of Almansa, while Morelli took third.
Moodley finished a few spots higher than he’d started, in nineteenth.
After the flag had dropped, Esteban was dropped a position for flirting with the green paint during the last lap.
Moto2:
Vying for the title of rider who’d had to drop the most grid positions for dawdling, Baltus lined up on the grid twelve slot slower than he’d qualified, going from seventh all the way to nineteenth. Why? Because he was caught cruising on the racing line not once, but twice this weekend.
Racing commenced, and for a while everything went smoothly.
The first retirement of the race wasn’t even due to a crash: Salač limped into pit lane at the end of the sixth lap with a technical problem.
In fact, Veijer became the sole crasher in the entire nineteen-lap race when he, on Lap Fifteen, went flying off at Turn Four at Mach Ouch.
At the end of Lap Fifteen, and after two big detours through the dusty parts of the track – once on Lap Ten, and once on Lap Fourteen – Piqueras finally called it quits, and popped into the pits.
The final lap saw an entertaining duel between Guevara and Alonso as they tried to determine who of them would finish in second, and who would be left in third.
López snatched up the win, while Guevara ended up claiming second place, leaving Alonso in third.
During the Cooldown Lap, López ensured there would be no rubber left on his rear tyre to analyse post-race by doing an epic burnout in front of the elated crowd. Ten out of ten smoke cloud.
Meanwhile, Guevara did a stoppie at the entrance to Parc Fermé, and promptly stalled his bike in the process.
A short while later, López arrived in pit lane while being powered by three marshals. It appeared that he’d run out of the go-go stuff before he could reach Parc Fermé. Or, perhaps, he’d stalled as well, and couldn’t get it to start up again. We may never find out.
MotoGP:
No Ogura this weekend – the Japanese speedster was nursing a broken thumb after a motocross training accident.
Sprint Race:
Saturday’s Sprint wasn’t even a remote contender for the best Sprint of the season. It was, at least, not the most boring one either.
It did start off with some comic relief: filtering onto the grid after the Warm Up Lap, Acosta lined up his KTM in the wrong slot. He recognised his whoopsie almost immediately, hopping off in order to reverse his bike into the correct spot before jumping back on again, taking off a piece of tail-aero in the process. What a way to start a race.
On the opening lap, Mir took a quick detour in the name of sightseeing.
By Turn Seven on the first lap, Marini went down. He was sat on his knees in front of a marshal, the camera angle making for a screenshot that could be taken gloriously out of context.
Two laps later, Di Giannantonio was racing hard, trying to improve his position in the leading pack – until he wasn’t. As he entered Turn Sixteen, his Ducati was swept off the track by an invisible broom, the way your mother would sweep at the leaf you trod in moments after she’d swept that spot of the floor.
Yellow flags mysteriously emerged on Lap Six, and for a second we didn’t know why. Then we saw it: Quartararo’s Yamaha had exploded, sending a plume of smoke into the atmosphere; we were somewhat surprised that Greta didn’t materialise on the spot.
At the end of the race, Márquez One (Marc) and Márquez Two (the other one), took first and second, in that order. Again. Bezzecchi round off the podium in third, after having taken pole position with an insane new All-Time Lap Record.
Binder finished fifteenth.
With Sprint win number twenty now under his belt, Marc was the rider with the most Sprint race victories to his name, and the first to get to twenty.
Main Race:
Zarco had to complete a Double Long Lap Penalty on Sunday, for causing the very crash that had put him on the bench for the last few races.
It took six laps for someone to finally fall off their bike, and that someone ended up being Bagnaia. While flip-flopping between Turns Eight and Nine, Pecco plopped down for an unscheduled pebblebed-rest stop.
A moment later, Morbidelli fell off at Turn Sixteen.
At the end of Lap Six, Fernández retired into the pits after his bike developed a terminal stutter which had sent him off-track at least once. We would soon be informed that it had something to do with his Aprilia’s gearing.
For almost fifteen laps, Acosta managed to cling to (Marc) Márquez’s coattails like an overexcited Jack Russel. But, by Lap Sixteen, Marc finally managed to shake Pedro, stretching out a lead of just over a second.
Three laps shy of race end, Rawshaggledeigloo’s Yamaha abandoned him at Turn Twelve before sliding away down the escape road.
Finally, Márquez (yes, Marc) claimed his seventy-seventh MotoGP race victory, with Acosta holding out in second, and Bezzecchi bringing up the rear in third.
Binder managed a decent result of tenth over the finish line.
No sooner had the race ended, than the party commenced at the ‘93’ grand stand. Marc joined his fans for a brief, yet energetic fiesta before making his way to Parc Fermé.
Baggers:
The Baggers joined in on the Aragonian action, competing in the penultimate round of the competition – and making it count.
Race One:
By the time the Harleys took to the track on Saturday, track temperature was reportedly around fifty-two degrees Celsius. You could have a post-race braai on that tarmac!
Granado, deeply invested in the podium battle, had a very unusual, very painful crash going into Turn Four on Lap Two as hid bike’s rear end decided to try and overtake its front. Naturally this resulted in both rider and motorcycle hopping across the gravel. At first it seemed like the Harley was aiming to bodyslam Granado, but decided against it at the very last second.
Granado was later carted off to the Medical Centre, for a check-up.
Still on Lap Two, we played a round of ‘How many marshals does it take to push a Harley Davidson?’ when Lewis’ ride died. Quite a few, apparently.
STILL on the second lap, going into Turn Seventeen, Pratama fell off on the inside of the corner. Bits of bike scattered over the track as Harley and rider slid across the tarmac, and directly into the path of Wyman. To his credit, Wyman threaded the needle quite neatly, passing between Pratama and his bike while avoiding the rapidly-nearing graveltrap, and rejoining the race with little more than a light skidmark inside his leathers.
The remaining laps were taken up by an entertaining three-way fight for the lead.
Setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, Iannone claimed victory. A mildly grumpy Gutiérrez took second, while McDonald ended up third.
During his Cooldown Lap celebrations, McDonald ran up to a Clear-Vu fence, tried to climb it, and very nearly succeeded. We thought those fences were marketed as unclimbable…
In the post-race interviews, we heard why Oscar’s face was a little long: He was not all that impressed with ‘some riders’ and their daring overtakes at the start of the race (we’re looking at you, Iannone).
Race Two:
On Sunday, the Baggers were released onto the track first, instead of after everyone else as they usually are.
As Gutiérrez coasted onto the grid, he was aggressively gesticulating to his team, reaching down to the left side of his bike, agitation oozing from his very being.
Not long after this, a delay in the race start was announced. Everyone asked why, nobody was ever directly answered. The only reason given – eventually – was ‘track conditions’.
We watched as the Safety Car cruised around the track, stopping briefly at the final corner to inspect a teeny damp patch on the racing line. After stroking the tarmac, Capirossi gave the thumbs-up, hopped back into his BMW, and made his way back into pit lane.
The Warm-Up Lap commenced shortly after, seven minutes later than originally scheduled.
Though Gutiérrez snatched up the lead off the line, Iannone made the Pass of the Day into Turn One, wheelieing into the lead like the Maniac he is.
The abovementioned overtake clearly upset Gutiérrez, adding to his Race One irritation. This resulted in him trying to outbrake Iannone into Turn Twelve on the second lap, which in turn resulted in Oscar completely overshooting the corner, falling over, and skittling into the gravel while his Harley tried to hide in a smoke-and-dust cloud in sheer embarrassment.
Physically unharmed, but fuming from every opening in his leathers, Gutiérrez laid his head on the tyre wall, hitting it with his fist while sobbing unconsolably.
For the remainder of the race, nobody crashed violently, while a fantastic battle raged on for the lead.
In the end, Iannone claimed the victory again, making it an Aragón double. Granado came through for second, while McDonald took another third place.
After the race, Gutiérrez was seen stomping around pit lane, shouting and pointing fingers at officials until some team members tried to defuse his temper-tantrum before he got put in detention.
With that, we enter the final stretch of the season, marked by back-to-back races all the way to the last round. So, buckle up, buttercups!
~ Karr
