Tito Rabat takes victory at home in Aragon, but DNF for Alex Marquez

 In Moto2, News

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Tito Rabat claimed his second win of the season, and his first since Mugello, with a superb ride in the Moto2 Grand Prix of Aragon. The Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider got the better of a titanic battle with compatriot Álex Rins, in a restarted Moto2 race that ran over 14 laps.

Rabat took the race lead with eight laps to go, but a hard charging Rins squeezed past the reigning World Champion under braking for turn 12 on the final lap to take the lead. It was to be a brief turn at the front though, as Rabat immediately swept around the outside to reclaim the lead and then defended robustly to win by a tenth of a second at the line.

With championship leader Johann Zarco finishing sixth, the victory means Rabat has closed the gap on the championship leader to 78 points, as well as increasing his lead over third placed Rins to 22 points.

Âlex Márquez had another strong showing as he continues to learn and develop in the intermediate class. Having qualified on the second row of the grid, the reigning Moto3 World Champion was running well inside the top ten during the early stages of the race, despite being held up by Johann Zarco. Unfortunately the Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider’s race ended prematurely after an error saw him crash at turn 15.

Tito Rabat: 1st
“On the last lap I knew that Alex was going to be fast at the end of the race because he had used a new soft tyre for the second start and we had to use the same tyre as the first start. I am so happy to win here at home so I want to say a big thank you to my team. We have still got four races to go until the end of the year, so I want to enjoy those races and, hopefully, add some more wins.”

Álex Márquez: DNF
“It wasn’t the perfect race! In the first one we had a great opportunity to follow Tito, Rins and Lowes but in the second race after we started again I was fighting for two laps with Zarco. I couldn’t really understand his objective because I’m not fighting for the championship. I have to see the positive points from today, which is that my rhythm has been really good all weekend and in the qualifying we had our best result of the year. I now need to push more in the three fly away races but the positive point is that we have improved all the time and our level is coming closer to that of the frontrunners in Moto2.”

Source: Marc VDS Racing

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