Total domination is the only way to describe Casey Stoner's victorious weekend at the Grand Prix of Aragon in the East of Spain. He scored his eighth win of the year and it was never in doubt. The Australian was the class act throughout practice, claiming pole ahead of his fellow Red Bull athlete Dani Pedrosa.
The factory Honda pair almost rubbed shoulders as they shot off the line at the start and it was American Ben Spies who came from third on the grid to take the lead going into the first corner. Pedrosa had second, but was soon eased aside by Stoner who then, almost casually, took the lead from Spies before the end of lap one.
The race was over, Pedrosa had seized second, but Stoner was well away and never threatened. He reeled off the laps to win by eight seconds. Spies was unable to hang on to third, being passed by reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, who took the last rostrum place a further six seconds behind Pedrosa.
So after the frustration of an exhausted thirrd at Misano, Stoner was back in front and reclaiming a 44-point championship lead with four races remaining. “We knew we had a good chance also at Misano, the bike was good, I just didn't have the strength at the end of the race. But this weekend we had no such problems, everything has been good, the bike was good right out of the box, we changed a few things because we only had one afternoon session. Then today the conditions were a bit different, more windy, we lowered the screen to keep out of the wind a bit more. So I have to thank the team once again, they pretty much give me a great bike every weekend.
Pedrosa accepted his second position – he lies fourth in the championship, 15 points behind Andrea Dovizioso, who crashed out on lap one. “I tried my best, in the first section I was not too good, I was losing two-tenths to Casey and I tried to improve but was not able to get close enough to Casey. In the race it was interesting, the tyre wear produced quite a lot of sliding as we were trying to get the power down and I just pushed on as hard as I could. Of course I would rather have won, but that was not possible this weekend.”
Another brilliant Márquez Moto2 win
Marc Márquez closed the points gap to championship leader Stefan Bradl to just six with another fabulous victory. After an initial fierce five-man fight for the lead that included Bradl, pole man Márquez eventually proved superior.
By lap 13, the reigning 125cc World Champion was forcing a pace that the others could not match and that was the end of the battle. From then on no one could touch him and he left Andrea Iannone to fight it out for second with fellow Italian Simone Corsi.
Crucially for the championship Bradl faded as the race wore on and finished a distant eighth, complaining of tyre and machine problems. Across the line, Márquez was a comfortable two seconds ahead of Iannone and Corsi.
After the race he revealed that the win was not as easy as it looked. “Yesterday it was easier to go fast, today it was a lot windier and at first I didn't have the right feeling. It was a good battle especially with Iannone, but I knew that if I could get in front I could probably get a gap and so I pushed 100 per cent to get in front and then away. Then I saw I had a gap and I concentrated on just holding on to it.”
Terol wins and extends 125 championship lead
Nico Terol was untouchable and lead from the first corner, eventually extending his advantage to six seconds over Johann Zarco at the flag. Any chance that the Frenchman had of pressing his Spanish arch-rival ended with a poor start from Zarco.
Zarco had to work hard just to get into a second-place battle with pole man Hector Faubel and when he did it was a great fight right to the final lap when Faubel crashed, giving second to Zarco and third to Maveric Vinales.
Red Bull athlete and former Red Bull Rookie Cup rider Luis Salom took an excellent fifth, with Danny Kent sixth on the Red Bull Ajo MotoSport machine and Kent's team-mate Jonas Folger 10th.
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