It was September 12, 2021: Pecco Bagnaia riding the Ducati won in Aragon the first race of MotoGp of his career, 7 tenths faster than Marc Marquez’s Honda. That day Valentino Rossi finished 19th, 32 seconds behind. Between the Doc and the Piedmontese it was the passing of the baton, but nobody knew it yet. Since then, the reigning world champion has won 25 Sunday races out of 57. And 2 world titles. This weekend we return to the Spanish track of Alcanizthe Motor City (o Motorland): designed by the usual German architect, Hermann Tilkelooks like a spaceship landed in a red desert à la Sergio Leone. Pecco leads the ranking, with a 5-point advantage over Jorge Martin and 61 on his teammate Enea Bastianini.
Bagnaia has never been so successful, yet he is only 5 points ahead of Martin: why this is the most balanced MotoGP world championship ever
by Massimo Calandri
Aragon GP, the weekend program
The twelfth appointment of the season is all live on Sky Sport and streaming on Now: qualifications e sprint race on free-to-air Saturdays on Tv8, the rest on a delay.
It starts on Friday morning with the first free practice sessions starting at 8.55 with Moto3 and Moto2 at 9.45, at 10.40 it’s the turn of MotoGp; in the afternoon, free practice 2 for Moto3 (13.15) and Moto2 (14), the MotoGp pre-qualifications – which assign the first 10 places directly to Q2 the following day – start at 15.
On Saturday, third session of Moto3 (8.35) and Moto2 (9.20), MotoGP takes to the track at 10.05 and at 10.45 Q1 starts, followed by Q2 to determine the grid. Moto3 qualifying is at 12.45, Moto2 at 13.40. The MotoGP sprint race is at 15.
Sunday: the short warm up of MotoGp at 9.35, then the races. Green light for Moto3 at 11: 17 laps to go. Moto2 at 12.15, on 19 laps. MotoGp starts, as per tradition, at 14: 23 laps to go.
Bagnaia and Martin, a point-to-point duel for the MotoGP World Championship: every curve is decisive
by Massimo Calandri
Aragon GP, the precedents
Last year there was no race in Aragon. But 2022 witnessed a great battle between the 2 official Ducatisti, with Bastianini triumphing by 42 thousandths over Bagnaia (and 3rd, further away, Aleix Espargaró with Aprilia). It is a track with 17 curves, 8 of which are taken at less than one hundred miles per hour. This means that the route – as confirmed by Brembo technicians – is quite demanding in terms of “braking”. Great efforts are required to tackle curves 12 and 16, but the hardest curve for the braking system is the first: the MotoGP bikes go from 292 to 91 km/h in 4.4 seconds, in which they travel 216 meters with the temperature of the carbon discs reaching 690 degrees.
#MotoGp #Aragon #Bagnaia #overtake #Martin #track #victory
– 2024-08-30 11:41:22
