All to play for in MotoGP title race after Fabio Quartararo crashes out at Aragon

Lenovo Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia made a great start from the lights to lead the race but drama at Turn 3 saw championship leader, Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, crash out of the race after hitting the back of comeback man Marc Marquez’s Repsol Honda.

Fellow Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami also went down when he had contact with Marquez on the same lap, who retired soon after.

“I felt that we had the pace to fight for a great result, but unfortunately I crashed on the first lap,” said Quartararo.

“Some riders lost the rear, while others cut the line a little bit, and I just hit Marc from the back. It’s a big shame.”

At the front it was a Ducati battle between Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.

Gresini racing Ducati rider Bastianini took the lead on lap nine from Bagnaia but ran wide at Turn 12. He didn’t give up and closed again on his 2023 team-mate.

By lap 14 the two leading Ducatis had over a second on third-place rider Brad Binder on the KTM with championship contender Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia fourth.

With no team orders, Bastianini made his move on Bagnaia on the final lap at turn 7 and went on to win from Bagnaia byn just 0.042s at the chequered flag.

With two laps to go Espargaro squeezed past Binder for the final podium place with the Ducatis of Jack Miller and Luca Marini completing the top six.

Bastianini said: “Another good race and good battle like in Misano. My start was difficult, when Aleix overtook me.

“I went a bit long and lost some positions compared to where I started but on Lap 9 I was back on top and then made a mistake at turn 10.

“He was really fast like Misano and made no mistakes, like Misano, but on the last lap I was closer and I won.

“It’s amazing for me to be back on top, and I’m happy.”

Bagnaia added: “Today was very important to not make mistakes. Fabio was unlucky, it gave us a huge opportunity to recover a lot of points.”

Red Bull Ajo KTM’s Pedro Acosta was a comfortable winner in the Moto2 race from Flexbox HP40’s Aron Canet. British star Jake Dixon crashed out of sixth on the final lap.

Autosolar GasGas Aspar’s Izan Guevara claimed his fourth Moto3 victory of 2022 finishing clear of Ayumu Sasaki and Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Daniel Holgado. Scotland’s John McPhee was 10th.