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Sunday at MarquezLand went about as expected, with Marc Marquez turning up the volume on the party by claiming his eighth victory in a sizzling Aragon. Although Marco Bezzecchi seemed to have found an opportunistic antidote to Marquez’s late braking at the first corner, it was Pedro Acosta who became his main challenger and put him under pressure for much of the 23 laps. Ultimately, the KTM rider never got a shot at challenging for the win and seemed happy enough with second, with Bezzecchi settling for third once more. Marquez predictably attacked Bezzecchi into the first corner but a mistake with disengaging the rear ride height device slowed him down going into turn 3 and invited both factory Aprilias to get ahead. Marquez was quick to respond to Jorge Martin with an aggressive move at turn 15, which allowed Acosta to take advantage and further demote Martin by the end of the opening lap. After a tricky opening lap for Alex Marquez, who had to check out a few times in the early chaos, the Gresini rider rejoined the top 5 on the second lap and was the next rider to challenge Martin by the end of that same lap, when the championship leader ran slightly wide at turn 10. Raul Fernandez also lost ground at the start, finding himself in the company of Pecco Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Diogo Moreira and Fermin Aldeguer in the early top 10. Johann Zarco’s sluggish start dropped him to 11th before serving his double long lap penalty that would drop him to the back of the pack. By lap 3, Bezzecchi was enjoying nearly a second of advantage at the front, with Marc Marquez and Acosta pushing to reel him in, while Alex Marquez led a larger group some eight tenths of a second behind the podium positions. Bezzecchi and Marquez were posting early identical times in the early laps, but the reigning world champion eventually reduced the deficit to under a second on lap 5, while keeping Acosta a further half second back. Alex Marquez was still lingering one second behind the KTM rider but had ditched the Aprilia of Martin by another second, leaving his compatriot within reach of Fernandez - at least until lap 6 when the Trackhouse rider suddenly retired out of 6th with a technical issue. There was more drama in the pack as Bagnaia crashed out of 7th and then Aldeguer battled Di Giannantonio for what became the fight for 6th. Moreira, Jack Miller and Joan Mir now completed the top 10. The big change at the front also came on lap 6, when Marquez attacked again at turn 15 and seemed to rub elbows with Bezzecchi all the way to turn 16, where Acosta also profited to get ahead of the Italian. Bezzecchi was unable to retaliate straight away and let Acosta’s pursuit of Marquez take centre stage from then on. The future teammates were glued together for a few laps, even posting identical lap times, all while dropping Bezzecchi some eight tenths of a second back. There was a limited threat from behind, as Alex Marquez wasn’t making much progress in closing the one second gap to the poleman. Martin also did not seem to have the mid-race pace to catch up with Marquez and the next man was over five seconds down the road, where Aldeguer kept Di Giannantonio at bay. Moreira was slightly busier in defending 8th from Miller, while Mir fended off Bastianini for the final top 10 place - unsuccessfully so. The status quo was maintained at the front going into the second half of the race, with Marc Marquez, Acosta and Bezzecchi barely separable on lap times - until Marquez dipped into the 1:46s on lap 13 and it finally gave him half a second of breathing room. Personal bests for Acosta and Bezzecchi still couldn’t keep them within reach and the leader’s gap doubled to a whole second over the next lap, as Marquez carried on as the sole rider in the 46s. A little warning on lap 17 tamed down his pace but Acosta couldn’t take advantage and the gap stabilised around a second and a half. Bezzecchi seemed to have settled for third, a further second and a half back and far ahead of Alex Marquez in a lonely 4th. There was no action for Aldeguer or Di Giannantonio behind either, the only entertainment being provided by the exchanges for 8th between Moreira and the resurgent Bastianini, plus a late tango for 10th between Miller and Brad Binder. The enthusiastic crowds would not have complained about the tame final laps of the race, as Marquez cruised to the chequered flag - crossing the finish line 1.7 seconds ahead of Acosta. Bezzecchi comfortably secured third, five seconds ahead of Alex Marquez, with Martin limiting the championship damage with fifth. Aldeguer and Di Giannantonio added a couple more Ducatis to the top 7, while Bastianini secured eighth place on the final lap, after Moreira responded to every other attack until that point. Binder also robbed Miller of 10th late on, with the remaining points handed to Mir, Alex Rins, Luca Marini and Zarco. A nearly perfect weekend on home soil promoted Marquez to second in the world championship, turning the tide once more on his title bid, now only 19 points behind Martin, with Bezzecchi 24 points behind his teammate. With both Trackhouse riders out of action, Di Giannantonio climbed back into 4th on a 48 point deficit. The convalescent Ai Ogura loses ground to 53 points, while Acosta jumps ahead of Fernandez by 3. Results: | Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time/Diff | | 1 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Ducati | 41:10.969 | | 2 | 37 | Pedro Acosta | KTM | 1.754 | | 3 | 72 | Marco Bezzecchi | Aprilia | 3.629 | | 4 | 73 | Alex Marquez | Ducati | 8.687 | | 5 | 89 | Jorge Martin | Aprilia | 12.572 | | 6 | 54 | Fermin Aldeguer | Ducati | 17.687 | | 7 | 49 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Ducati | 23.136 | | 8 | 23 | Enea Bastianini | KTM | 25.741 | | 9 | 11 | Diogo Moreira | Honda | 25.899 | | 10 | 33 | Brad Binder | KTM | 26.441 | | 11 | 43 | Jack Miller | Yamaha | 27.206 | | 12 | 36 | Joan Mir | Honda | 27.999 | | 13 | 42 | Alex Rins | Yamaha | 28.276 | | 14 | 10 | Luca Marini | Honda | 29.794 | | 15 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Honda | 30.003 | | 16 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM | 35.874 | | 17 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 49.761 | | 18 | 20 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha | 51.657 | | Not Classified | |||| | 7 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Yamaha | 36:16.419 | | | 25 | Raul Fernandez | Aprilia | 11:16.917 | | | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Ducati | 09:07.915 | | | 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 09:05.926 |