Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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MOTOGP FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 13 / SEPTEMBER 21-23, 2018 MOTORLAND ARAGON / ALCAÑIZ, TERUEL, SPAIN P60 around, he was right on Dovi's tail, and then pushed ahead through Turn 12. The game was now afoot; and Iannone switched back to third as Dovi took the lead back two laps further along. was strong under brakes and on the straight, the Honda could close again through the long corners, especially Marquez's favorite left-handers including the one that now bears his name at MotorLand Aragon. Next time Dovi went straight into the lead from the middle of the front row, with Marquez in hot pursuit, and Iannone leading Rins. The younger Suzuki rider moved up to third on lap three, while second-row starter Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) had a brief skirmish with Iannone, getting ahead momentarily. But the Italian explained later, he was nursing his tires, and had enough in reserve to pass him straight back. "I was not pushing a lot at the beginning," he said. For the first half of the race, it looked like a dogged pursuit, and then on lap 12 Dovizioso pulled clear by three quarters of a second. Was the chase over? Certainly not. While the Ducati (who did get through to Q2) docked three places from 11th to 14th, and Morbidelli (who did not) dropped six places as a repeat offender, going from 13th to 19th. POL OUT AGAIN Pol Espargaro's return to racing after complicated injuries at Brno came to an abrupt end at Aragon, when the Red Bull KTM rider crashed on Saturday morning and re-broke his left collarbone. The younger of two racing Spanish brothers had come back to the San Marino GP at Misano two weeks ago after missing the Czech, Austrian and British GPs, but had been unable to finish the race. DANI NOT CONFIRMED While Mika Kallio was confirmed to stay in his role as KTM factory tester next year, Dani Pedrosa brushed off growing rumors that he is to join the Finn to boost the development effort. In much the same way as he shrugged aside reports of his immi- nent retirement earlier this season, he left the question dangling. "There is no news," he curtly replied, when asked directly if the rumors were true. The career-long Honda rider's name had been linked with the Austrian factory since before he an- nounced his retirement at the Ger- man GP before the summer break, ever since it had been confirmed before round seven in Catalunya that he had lost his factory Honda ride to Jorge Lorenzo for next year. ONCU CAN RACE An unexpected clarification of a rule change decided at Assen before the summer break opens the door for runaway Red Bull Rookies win- ner Can Oncu to make an early grand prix entry before the end of this season, probably as a Red Bull KTM-team wild card. At 15, the young Turk is below minimum age, but the rule change decided at the Grand Prix Commission was that the winner of the Red Bull series, which runs at selected GP events, would be entitled to an FIM GP license, even if not yet 16. This is the same privilege already enjoyed by winners of the CEV "Junior World Champion- ship," which allowed Fabio Quartar- aro to make an underage GP debut in 2015. Oncu took five wins in this year's series and was on the podium at every race, before securing the title at Misano a fortnight ago. Briefly... The look on Valentino Rossi's face says it all. It's not happy days at Yamaha.