Bastianini pips Bagnaia on the final lap to win Aragon Grand Prix

Enea Bastianini grabbed the victory away from Francesco Bagnaia on the last lap of the Aragon Grand Prix while series leader Fabio Quartararo fell out after colliding with Marc Marquez.

Starting from third on the grid, Bastianini got off to a rather slow start and fell behind KTM’s Brad Binder, but the Gresini rider appeared to have good speed as he rapidly corrected the balance and pushed into the podium slots after just a few laps.

Bastianini turned his attention to catching race leader Bagnaia, putting pressure on his countryman to take the lead after having quickly overtaken Jack Miller’s factory Ducati.

A quick maneuver at Turn 1 just before halfway helped him find a way through, but a slip-up at Turn 12 a few turns later ruined all his hard work.

Bastianini restarted his attack on his 2023 teammate as the race neared its final stages after regrouping and conserving his tyres during the second half of the race. The Italian stormed through on Bagnaia at Turn 7 on the final lap.

Bagnaia did everything in his power to catch up to Bastianini, but ultimately failed. His streak of race victories came to a stop at four as he crossed the finish line barely 0.042 seconds behind the Gresini-driven Ducati, which gave Bastianini his fourth victory of the year.

However, Bagnaia was still able to gain ground on Quartararo in the race for the championship after the Yamaha rider was disqualified on the opening lap for colliding with Marc Marquez, who had lost speed after slipping.

Quartararo was instantly knocked out of the race by the incident, but Marquez’s Honda was seriously damaged, forcing him to retire after making his way back to the pits. However, when he crashed into Takaaki Nakagami, and the LCR Honda driver was also eliminated from the race.

With five races left, the reigning world champion now has a slim 10-point lead after his retirement, while Aleix Espargaro has cut the gap to only 17 points after finishing third toward the end of the race.

Binder was in position to earn KTM’s third rostrum finish of the year after overtaking Miller’s Ducati, but as the race’s conclusion drew near, Espargaro’s Aprilia started to gain ground on the South African rider.

Ultimately, Espargaro would make a move on the RC16 at Turn 1 with two laps remaining. The Spaniard would hang on ahead of Binder to the finish line, with Miller rounding out the top five.

Luca Marini of VR46 finished ahead of Jorge Martin for Pramac Racing in sixth place after an amazing comeback from 14th on the starting grid, while Johann Zarco dropped out of the top five early on to finish eighth.

While Marco Bezzecchi was the top rookie in tenth after passing Miguel Oliveira’s KTM at the very end, Suzuki’s Alex Rins battled back to finish ninth after being slowed down by the Marquez-Quartararo incident on the opening lap.

Maverick Vinales lost a lot of time trying to avoid Nakagami’s on the first lap, but eventually made up ground to move up to 13th ahead of RNF Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow, who finished in 14th place and beat factory M1 rider Franco Morbidelli, who finished in a dismal 17th.

2022 ARAGON GRAND PRIX RACE RESULTS