Aragon MotoGP: Marquez takes 16-point lead with victory

From fifth on the grid, Marquez suffered a slow start but profited from poleman Maverick Vinales running wide at the end of the first lap to take fourth behind a fast-starting Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, with whom he arrived in Aragon level on points.

It soon became apparent that Marquez had superior pace to his rivals, although it took him until the sixth lap to find a way by Dovizioso, as Lorenzo maintained a small lead over Rossi out front.

From there, Marquez quickly cruised up to the back of Rossi, and tried to outbrake him at Turn 12 - arriving to the corner ahead of both Rossi and Lorenzo but running well wide.

He dropped back behind Dovizioso as a result, but the following lap the Spaniard once again passed his main title rival.

Two laps later, Rossi was powerless to defend against Marquez, slipping behind at the Turn 16/17 complex, and soon the Honda man was all over the back of long-time leader Lorenzo.

What turned out to be the decisive move of the race came on lap 16, as Marquez slithered by Lorenzo's Ducati at Turn 12 and streaked to a fifth victory of the season by a margin of 0.879s.

After being passed by Marquez, Lorenzo was then reeled in by the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa, who had made short work of Vinales, Dovizioso and Rossi to go from sixth to third.

Pedrosa made the move on Lorenzo with two laps to go to give the Repsol Honda squad its third one-two finish of the year.

Lorenzo nonetheless claimed his first podium finish since May's Jerez race, and enjoyed his longest stint in the lead of a race since joining Ducati with a 15-lap spell out front.

The battle for fourth was an-all Yamaha affair, with Rossi unable to contain teammate Vinales and conceding the place with two laps to go at Turn 1.

Rossi was however able to fend off the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro in the final two laps to salvage fifth place, a remarkable achievement just 24 days on from breaking his right leg.

Dovizioso's title hopes took a dent with a disappointing run to seventh place, which leaves him 16 points back from Marquez with four rounds to run. Vinales is 28 behind the lead in third place.

Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati), Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Pol Espargaro (KTM) completed the top 10, with KTM wildcard Mika Kallio just missing out on matching his Austria result in 11th.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) was also well in the mix for a top-six placing before running wide at the first corner on lap 11 and then finally crashing out of 10th place on lap 17.

Andrea Iannone (Suzuki), Jack Miller (Marc VDS Honda), Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati) and Tito Rabat (Marc VDS Honda) completed the scorers.

Pramac's Danilo Petrucci, riding a factory-spec Ducati GP17, had an uncharacteristically low-key outing, finishing down in 20th place.

Besides Crutchlow, the only other retirement was Karel Abraham (Aspar Ducati), who crashed out in the early stages while running just inside the points.

Race results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	42'06.816
2	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	0.879
3	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	2.028
4	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	5.256
5	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	5.882
6	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	6.962
7	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	7.455
8	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	7.910
9	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	13.002
10	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	14.075
11	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	17.192
12	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	20.632
13	43	Jack Miller	Honda	23.886
14	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	25.523
15	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	26.082
16	94	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	30.302
17	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	31.874
18	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	31.948
19	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	36.296
20	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	37.842
21	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	47.599
22	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	47.647
	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	7 laps
	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	13 laps