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/1170860
MOTOGP FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP P106 ROUND 16 / SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 MOTORL AND ARAGON / ARAGON, SPAIN it to the front row. On Sunday he managed 21 of them to claim an unexpected second win of a dif- ficult season for the Austrian manu- facturer. Binder led from the first corner to the last, finally 0.7 of a second ahead of Jorge Navarro's Speed Up. The Spaniard had taken the po- sition from compatriot Alex Marquez (EG-VDS Kalex) with three laps left, but his efforts to close the gap were thwarted with a last-lap slide. "My strategy went out the win- dow after three laps. I'd wanted to sit behind the guys and wait, but thanks to my team, my bike was in- sane in the early laps. I had a small gap, so I thought, 'just do my best every lap and limit the mistakes,'" said Binder. Marquez was happy enough to accept third, with his recent title Marini would get back ahead of Marquez again from laps nine to 11, then on the 13th Navarro, showing familiar later-race pace, passed him and started to hound Marquez. He finally got past with three laps to go and started to close a one-second gap to Bind- er. He was almost close enough to attack on the final lap when a slide gave Binder breathing space to win by nearly 0.8 of a second. Marquez, with Fernandez gone, had wisely settled for a safe third. "Today was an impor- tant race for the championship, but also so difficult. Conditions had changed a lot, especially the wind direction. I nearly crashed many times," he said. Marquez had outstripped Marini, who had his hands full at the end fending off Sam Lowes (Federal Oils Kalex), who had disposed of Luthi after half distance, fifth his best result of a challenging year. Marquez stretched his advan- tage over new second-placer Navarro, 213 points to 175, with Fernandez stuck at 171. Luthi has 169 and Binder 160. Moto3 Aron Canet took a rare runaway win in the smallest class, and the Sterilgarda KTM rider's third win of the season put a Bunsen burner under his title hopes, with his closest rivals mired in a huge Brad Binder sprinted into the lead and stayed there for the entire Moto2 race. challenger Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP40 Kalex) robbed of the chance of a third win in a row when he slipped off on the first lap. The pursuit of the determined South African had at first been led by Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Kalex) ahead of pole starter Marquez and Fernandez, who had qualified second. But the last-named barely made it over the top of the hill, los- ing the front into Turn 5 and sliding unhurt but frantic into the gravel. A push from the marshals restarted the Triumph, and he rejoined in last place. Tom Luthi (Dynavolt Kalex) was chasing Marquez, but on lap six, as Marquez took second off Marini, he succumbed to the forceful Jorge Navarro's Speed Up and was soon narrowly but decisively out of touch.