Marquez happy to restart clock after dominant MotoGP win

Marc Marquez took some time to come to terms with his Aragon Grand Prix victory on Sunday when he ended a 1,043-day wait to win a MotoGP race and the six-times MotoGP champion hopes to never have to wait that long for another race victory again.

Once the most dominant rider on the grid, Marquez had not won a MotoGP race since October 2021, nor a title since 2019, with a broken arm he suffered in the first race of the 2020 season the start of his troubles.

The 31-year-old underwent several operations and also had bouts of diplopia after several crashes on the Honda, but this season he made the switch to Gresini Racing and finally claimed his first victory aboard a Ducati machine.

Having come close with podium finishes in sprints and races this season, Marquez was unstoppable on home turf as he took pole position and also won Saturday’s sprint race to enjoy the perfect weekend in front of his home fans.

“It was strange because some victories I enjoyed even more, but still I think my body didn’t realise what we achieved. This is something strange because some victories, even the explosion, [were] much more, even some podiums this year,” Marquez said.

“But this one, I think when I arrived in the box, I started to realise ... now we restart counting. I believe and I hope to not arrive on those numbers again,” he added with a laugh.

On a track where conditions changed throughout the day, Marquez said he took the right call by not going out for warm-ups, but admitted he found it tough to focus when he was so far ahead of the competition in the final laps.

“This morning in the warm-up that was wet, I said, ‘I don’t want to ride’, because sometimes on wet conditions you can lose the feeling later on in dry conditions,” Marquez said.

“The race was super long because managing that distance was super difficult to keep the concentration. But when I crossed the finish line, the value of this victory was completely different. I gave many things to arrive at this moment.

“I approached this opportunity [with Gresini] as a rookie rider. I tried to work more than ever and we did it. But now we need to continue, keep going.”

The 31-year-old Marquez, who claimed his eighth Aragon pole on Saturday, took the chequered flag almost five seconds ahead of fellow Spaniard and world championship leader Jorge Martin for his first win since the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Red Bull GasGas Tech3’s 20-year-old rookie Pedro Acosta completed an all-Spanish podium. SA’s Brad Binder on a KTM was fourth, 1.5 seconds behind.

Italian twice MotoGP champion Bagnaia had qualified third on the grid but endured a nightmare start, slipping down the pack, identical to Saturday’s sprint where he finished a lowly ninth.

But he methodically carved his way through the field and looked on course to seal the final podium spot before colliding with Marquez’s brother Alex on lap 19 of the 23-lap race.

Bagnaia was declared unhurt following the incident, MotoGP said on social media platform X.

The crash helped Martin extend his lead over second-placed Bagnaia in the riders’ championship to 23 points ahead of next weekend’s San Marino MotoGP in Santa Monica-Cella, Italy.

Reuters