Pulsating performance from Álvaro Bautista in Aragón
Marc Márquez dealt a blow to his championship rivals with victory in Aragon. The Spaniard made an inauspicious start but soon moved up from fourth position, passing Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and, finally, Jorge Lorenzo, to take a victory that gives him a sixteen-point margin at the top of the standings. Andrea Dovizioso was seventh today so remains second in the championship ahead of Maverick Viñales, Dani Pedrosa, and Valentino Rossi who returned to the track today despite his injury to pick up an important fifth place.
Álvaro Bautista produced a pulsating ride in front of the home fans, the Pull&Bear Aspar rider figuring strongly in the chasing group. Bautista finished the weekend in Aragon as the best independent Ducati rider, just eight seconds off victory and half a second behind Andrea Dovizioso. Bautista was satisfied with his performance in a race where he lacked some acceleration, but was able to compensate under braking. Karel Abraham made a good start and initiated a comeback that lifted him to fourteenth position. The Czech rider was confident of his chances but lost the front on the way into the Corkscrew and crashed. Abraham was comfortable at that point behind Pol Espargaró, who finally finished tenth.
8th Álvaro Bautista:
“It was a good race, less than eight seconds behind the winner. In other races, with that difference, it could have been fifth, but at least that means there is a lot of equality. I am satisfied because I have given one hundred percent and tried to get the most out our package. We went out and took a gamble on the soft rear, because we did not know what would happen after the seventh lap, which is the maximum we had managed in practice. In the race I was in the second group, the lead group was very strong but then we recovered ground. In acceleration I lost a bit, it was something that we wanted to have improved in the warm up and we could not, and then in the braking I had to recover. We had a good pace so I hope to continue in this way next time.”
