MotoGP Race And Practice Results

A sunny Motorland Aragon set the scene for the intermediate class battle, which went on until the final few turns of a tense and occasionally dramatic race. For the second week in a row, Sam Lowes was rewarded for his persistence with victory, following a dismal afternoon for the SKY Racing team. Having started 12th, Enea Bastianini turned his weekend around and then turned the championship battle around, regaining the lead with a fine second place in Aragon. Jorge Martin was a redoubtable adversary for the Italian but had to settle for the final podium position.

At the start of the 21 laps, it was Marco Bezzecchi who got the holeshot from poleman Lowes, while Jake Dixon got past front row starter Fabio Di Giannantonio but the Italian quickly recovered and was soon attacking Lowes for second. Keen not to allow Bezzecchi to run away, as the Italian had stretched an eight tents advantage on lap one, Lowes picked up the chase on lap two from Di Giannantonio, with Martin, Dixon, Luca Marini, Bastianini, Remy Gardner and Marcos Ramirez close behind. A one second gap separated the lead group from a second one including Augusto Fernandez, Joe Roberts, Tom Luthi and Xavi Vierge.

While Lowes was pushing to reduce the gap to the runaway leader, the drama started behind them, Marini abandoning the lead group as he crashed out at turn 14 and had to watch from the sidelines how his championship lead seemed to be going the way of his teammate. The incident left a slight gap between the leaders and Bastianini, who was pushing to rejoin the podium battle, having disposed of Gardner & Co.

Lowes had caught up with Bezzecchi by lap six and brought Di Giannantonio with him, leaving Martin, Dixon and Bastianini almost a second behind. As close as he got, Lowes did not have it easy finding a way past the rapid Italian and the British rider’s small mistake on lap eight got punished by Di Giannantonio, who swiftly picked up the chase. The leading trio kept in close proximity but Martin was drawing ever closer to the group, while gently dropping Bastianini and Dixon.

Bezzecchi continued to run an impeccable race at the front as the race reached lap 10 but Di Giannantonio saw an opportunity at turn 14, which the Speed Up rider fully embraced but the lead did not seem to suit him well as he became the next victim of turn 2. Bezzecchi inherited the lead once more, but under pressure from Lowes once again, and with Martin and Bastianini eyeing the victory battle as well, seven tenths behind the leading duo but yo-yoing in and out of contention for the next few laps. Bastianini was a man on a mission, taking third away from Martin at turn 13 with 7 laps to go but the Spaniard hit back at turn 1 and the Italian had to do it all over again on the next lap.

While that battle was unfolding, Bezzecchi and Lowes had gained an advantage of nearly three seconds at the front but Lowes seemed to struggle to keep up with Bezzecchi too, consistently six tenths behind. Bastianini had to give up any aspirations at the victory battle given the gap with five laps remaining, but Martin did not make it easy to keep the podium spot either, glued to his tail for those final laps.

It all seemed pretty settled as the race entered the final 2 laps but the turn 2 curse struck once again, catching out Bezzecchi and gifting Lowes the lead. Meanwhile, Martin attacked Bastianini in what became the battle for second, the Spaniard starting the final lap ahead but the Italian set up a fine move at turn 13 to grab second, as well as the championship lead. Martin settled for third, with Dixon in a solid but lonely ride to fourth. Gardner joined the top five ahead of Ramirez and Hector Garzo, while Roberts, Tetsuta Nagashima and Simone Corsi rounded out the top ten positions.

Bastianini’s late move secured him the lead in the world championship, 2 points ahead of Lowes and 5 ahead of Marini, with Bezzecchi 25 points back.

Results:

The ten lap sprint race that would determine the grid for race two this afternoon was cold enough for everyone to opt not to use the SCX superpole race tyre. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu hit turn one from pole position again, ahead of Garrett Gerloff, Leon Haslam and Michael van der Mark as Jonathan Rea and Scott Redding carved their way through their respective packs. At the end of lap one, Alex Lowes tucked the front at turn thirteen and ended his race, walking away from his crash.

At the start of the second lap, Leon Haslam fell back to fifth place as the continued duel between Chaz Davies and Michael van der Mark passed him at the start of the lap. Jonathan Rea climbed up to seventh place as Scott Redding made his way to eleventh. Toprak Razgatlioglu set the fastest lap as he increased his lead over Garrett Gerloff. 

Over the next few laps, Toprak Razgatlioglu stretched out his lead to a second and a half over Garret Gerloff who had a similar lead over the Chaz Davies versus Michael van der Mark battle over the last podium place. Jonathan Rea, after overtaking Leon Haslam into turn one of lap four, was a second behind them. Scott Redding, three places back after passing Michael Ruben Rinaldi sat behind the Hondas of Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam and lined them up for a passes, taking seventh place off Haslam on lap six of ten. Toprak Razgatlioglu set a new lap record of 1'36.594 at the halfway mark.

As Chaz Davies and Michael van der Mark continued to fight, Scott Redding eventually passed Alvaro Bautista for sixth place, just over a second behind Jonathan Rea. Chaz Davies went a little wide at turn three, his grip starting to fade, and van der Mark tried to stuff it up the inside, but had to back off after Davies closed his line and the pair touched. They continued close riding, van der Mark needing to pass before his grip dropped to the same level as Davies, and at the end of lap eight, he took his opportuinty at turn thirteen and led briefly down the straight where the power of the Ducati, coupled with his braking prowess, put Davies in front into turn one. At turn four, however, Davies once again went a little wide and van der Mark still had the tyre to get underneath and pass Davies. Davies had no answer and van der Mark bolted off. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu won decisively again, with a pole position, lap record and two wins so far this weekend, ahead of Garrett Gerloff and Michael van der Mark, Yamaha's first all-blue podium in the history of World Superbike, and a lockout of the front row for race two. Chaz Davies was a second off the podium in fourth place. Scott Redding couldn't close the gap on Jonathan Rea, but the pair finished together on the time sheet and will round out the second row for this afternoon's race, alongside Chaz Davies. Michael Ruben Rinaldi's ninth place, behind the Hondas, assured him of the independent rider's championship, thirty four points clear of Loris Baz.

Results:

Results:

World Supersport would be split by a red flag turning the race into a twelve lap sprint race.

Lucas Mahias fluffed turn one and Andrea Locatelli took the lead, and after a few laps, Locatelli led Raffaele De Rosa and Lucas Mahias until the red flags came out for track conditions were deemed unsafe after a crash from Peter Sebestyen threw gravel back onto the track. 

After a twelve lap restart, Andrea Locatelli led into turn one, ahead of Lucas Mahias and Raffaele De Rosa, and into turn two, De Rosa slipped underneath Mahias only to lose grip and take the pair of them out. 

After that, the race proceeded as expected with Locatelli leading, setting the fastest lap four laps into the restart with a 1'40.213 as a second behind Hannes Soomer and Philipp Oettl battled it out for second place, with Oettl taking second place with eight laps remaining. 

On lap six, Can Oncu took fourth place from Steven Odendaal, two seconds behind Oettl and Soomer, but Odendaal took it back towards the end of the lap. Isaac Viñales set the fastest lap of 1'40.053 as he closed up to Miguel Gonzales on the back of the fight for fourth and started carving his way through the pack, starting lap eight fighting Odendaal for fourth place. 

Jules Cluzel was in tenth place in his first race back from injury, with three seconds behind him, and he took ninth place on lap nine, as the fight for fourth entered the first turn three bikes wide while the podium looked set, the fight between Philipp Oettl and Hannes Soomer the only thing remaining to be determined, over a second behind Locatelli.

Isaac Viñales broke free from the fight between Can Oncu, Steven Odendaal and Manuel Gonzales, settling into forth place a second ahead of the fight but three seconds off a podium place.

Reigning world champion Andrea Locatelli won, completing his unbroken run of a win at each track with Philipp Oettl and Hannes Soomer rounding out the podium. Isaac Viñales took fourth place a second and a half ahead of Steven Odendaal.

Results: