The MotoGP World Championship returns to Aragon with just five points between Bagnaia and Martin

The countdown has begun at the MotorLand circuit in Alcañiz, where the next round of the world championship will be held from 30 August to 1 September, with the title fight in full swing. After his absence from the motorcycling championship last season, the bikes are back in Aragon. Pecco Bagnaia arrives in Alcañiz as the world leader, just five points ahead of Jorge Martín, second in the standings and 83 points behind a dislodged Marc Márquez, who is fourth in the standings and far from the title fight.

With the season halfway through, Aragon will be the stage for the eleventh round of the calendar. The drivers will face the “slides” of Motorland , a 5,077-metre circuit with a total of 17 turns (10 left-hand and 7 right-hand) with a gradient of 7.2%.

🏁Las tres competiciones estrellas del fin de semana‼️
🎫ENTRADA GRATUITA🎫
🏆TROFEO DE VELOCIDAD🏆
🏎️Campeonato de España de Turismos
🚙Campeonato de España de GT
🚗 Campeonato Regional
🇨🇵 Copa Francesa Caterham pic.twitter.com/TY3SXtxiSr

— MotorLand Aragón (@AragonMotorLand) July 12, 2024

MOTO GP RETURNS TO ARAGON AFTER A YEAR OF ABSENCE AND WITH CHANGES

The Aragonese event returns to the top of the motorcycling ladder after its absence last year by decision of Dorna Sports. In 2023, the company that organises the Moto GP championship decided to eliminate the Aragon GP from the calendar, due to the fact that Spain hosted four races of the competition, to replace it with the Indian and Kazakhstan GPs and thus attract the motorcycling championship to other places in the world.

After a year of absence, Dorna decided to return the Aragonese event to the 21-race calendar, altered this season by the absence of the Indian Grand Prix, due to the monsoon, the rainy season in that area and which would put riders and attendees at risk.

As a major novelty for the eleventh round of the championship, the MotorLand track in Teruel has been completely resurfaced, in addition to the change of four kerbs at the request of the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM). The leaders of the Aragonese circuit hope to improve the figures of its last edition in 2022, with a total of 86,000 spectators , far from the more than 116,000 attendees in the 2016 season. One of the incentives for this event will be the fight for the MotoGP title at stake, which is only separated by five points between the Italian Pecco Bagnaia and the Spaniard Jorge Martín.

THE WORLD CUP IN A FIST

The MotoGP championship arrives in Aragon with the title fight in full swing. Peco Bagnaia secured a double at the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring last weekend , after taking victory in the sprint race on Saturday and the race on Sunday at the controls of his Ducati Lenovo 2024.

Despite taking pole position on Saturday and beating the track record by one second (1:27.748) , Madrid-born Jorge Martín was unable to keep up with the Italian’s pace. In the sprint race, Martín ‘s Ducati Pramac exceeded the track limit number of times, causing him to take a long lap that cost him three seconds, but he eventually took second place after Marc Márquez fell when he was in second position.

In Sunday’s race, both drivers arrived with 250 points each and the race was a sprint sticker. After a good start by the Spaniard, Peco only took one lap to overtake Martin in the first corner, after the Italian extended his braking to overtake the Spaniard. Bagnaia gradually increased his lead, achieving his sixth victory of the season and regaining the lead lost at Silverstone.

On the other hand, Marc Márquez had another difficult weekend. After a great qualifying session, placing third, the rider from Cervera crashed in the sprint race when he was in second position. On Sunday, after a failure in his “holeshot” system , Márquez lost many positions at the start, where he was on the verge of falling with Morbidelli. The Spaniard once again relied on speed and aggression, where he made a new comeback to fourth position , far from the podium that would be occupied by Enea Bastianini.

Only five points is the difference between the first and second placed riders. Bagnaia and Martin are in fantastic form, with a lead of more than 50 points over Bastianini and 83 points over Marc Marquez. However, every race counts, as there are 37 points at stake during the weekend and a crash could be important for the championship.