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None of which bothered Marquez, whose preference for left-hand corners was well served at the anti-clockwise circuit. His Honda recorded a mere 212 mph, but he was just so fast every- where else. He took a flying start, pursued by second qualifier Fabio Quar- tararo (Petronas Yamaha) and Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati), up from the second row ahead of Vinales. At the end of the first lap, Miller now second, Marquez was already 1.1 seconds clear. Next time around Marquez set the fastest lap, marginally short of teammate Jorge Lorenzo's 2015 record. From there, he remained in complete control, leading by six seconds by lap 15, and able to slow over the line and still win by almost five seconds. "I was convinced by my strat- egy—when I went out from the box I already had good feeling: push in the beginning, take a gap of four or five seconds, and keep it like that. At one point Maverick was coming closer, so I pushed a little and kept the gap again," Marquez said. Vinales had taken eight laps to pass first Quartararo and then Miller, who had slipped through to second on the first lap. At this point, Marquez was 4.7 seconds away, and the Yamaha rider chased valiantly. The effort would cost him dearly in grip as the race wore on. "With four laps to go, the rear tire was gone. I nearly crashed two or three times, with the throttle closed," Quartararo said. Dovizioso had been 10th on the grid but finished the first lap seventh. From there, he had been plugging away, his top speed IIIMY OWN RACE: 12 MAVERICK VINALES 4TH MOTOGP "I knew second place was possible today, so I pushed and pushed and pushed, but finally, in the last two laps, the re was very much on the limit," said Maverick Vinales. "I tried my best. I nearly crashed two or three mes because of the rear and thought 'Okay, today I have to be fourth, that's the maximum.' I'm actually happy that I was very strong in the middle of the race. At the end, I didn't have enough grip on the res to keep going, but I'm once again the first Yamaha, which is important to us. I tried to close the door everywhere to Dovi, but in the end it was impossible, on the straight I stood no chance." 20 FABIO QUARTARARO 5TH MOTOGP "Overall we did a really good job at Aragon, and I'm pleased with the result because the goal was to finish inside the top five," said Fabio Quartararo. "We were just missing a li le bit of grip in the le corners, and we need to ana- lyze the data and see what happened. Our pace was good at the end but just not quite good enough to stay with the guys in front; I gave my 100% to try, but I couldn't manage it. We're figh ng for the top independent rider with Jack [Miller], and it'll be good to carry that ba le on through the overseas races." MOTOGP FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP P100 Andrea Dovizioso (center) put the power of his Ducati to good use. He powered his way up into second place. ROUND 16 / SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 MOTORL AND ARAGON / ARAGON, SPAIN