Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1031651
MOTOGP FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 13 / SEPTEMBER 21-23, 2018 MOTORLAND ARAGON / ALCAÑIZ, TERUEL, SPAIN P62 Rins remained a close spec- tator, as it became a three-way fight for the lead, Iannone taking advantage as the other two traded blows. At one point on lap 18 they were side by side at the entrance to the straight; and while the Ducati's surging power put Dovi back in front, Marquez continued to push ahead now and again. "I could see he was sliding more, and I didn't want the race to go to the last corner as we did a few times last year," Marquez said. Marquez had come off second-best then, so now he went to maximum risk. On lap 21 the two leaders changed places three times, and with two to go Marquez gained enough daylight to remain invulnerable. Dovi had to be content with second, albeit by only six tenths, as Marquez remained just out of reach. "The way I want to look at the weekend is we did a huge step compared with last year. I couldn't really fight with Marc, but the podium confirms our improvement," Dovi said. Last year he'd finished seventh, although Lorenzo had been second. Iannone was a similar dis- tance behind, and spoke of how the Suzuki's "fantastic chassis [which] means we can gain a lot in fast corners, especially in the entry. But the Honda and Ducati are a lot faster on the straight. That is our weakness." With Rins finally a second adrift, it was fairly processional behind him. Especially after first Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Ducati) crashed out on lap two, and soon afterwards also Cal Crutchlow (LCR Castrol Honda), both from seventh position. Pedrosa, enjoying a better than usual run because of the heat but later bemoaning not also switching to the soft rear tire, had his hands full fending off a surprise pursuer. It was Aleix Espargaro, who would eventually lose touch by some four seconds, but had still equaled Aprilia's best-ever result iii My Own Race: 25 MAVERICK VINALES 10TH MOTOGP "I'm disappointed about how things are going," Vinales said. "I'll just go home, try to relax, and start thinking about the next race. The rhythm wasn't there, though we had it in FP4—on the same tires we were doing 1:48s, but in the race it wasn't possible. I didn't feel great at the Buriram track in pre-season testing, but I'll try my best, as always, and take the maximum result." 41 ALEIX ESPARGARO 6TH MOTOGP "On the last race, we changed the crew chief and we started working in a different way, we changed the balance of the bike," Espargaro said. "We worked in a different way from F1, thinking more for the race, we suffered a lot in qualifying because I started in 15th place which wasn't really my position because we were stronger but all weekend we worked with a full tank and race tires. Finally, it paid off in the race, we did the right choice with the tires and we were strong from the beginning to the end, so I'm super happy." 99 JORGE LORENZO DNF MOTOGP "From the outside, [it looked like] I entered too fast, I lean too much and I entered too wide in the dirty part, that's why I crashed," Jorge Lorenzo said. "From what I lived, what I experienced, I entered in the normal line, entered the corner as I did in the seven last years here in Aragon, but I watched Marc go into the inside, very aggressive, not making the corner because you saw where he finished, in the green [paint on the outside]. And when he saw that I was there, he tried not to let me pass into the corner, and I didn't have any options [but] to go to the dirty part. Because we were very wide and already the other riders were coming, if I didn't want to lose five or six positions, I had to open the throttle. In Misano [last time out] the crash was completely my fault, this time Marc destroyed my race, destroyed my foot, destroyed also the big possibility that I have to win and probably also [the] Thailand race."