Enea Bastianini snatched victory away from Francesco Bagnaia on the final lap of the Aragon Grand Prix, while series leader Fabio Quartararo crashed out after hitting Marc Marquez.
Bastianini made a relatively sluggish start from third on the grid and dropped behind KTM’s Brad Binder, though the Gresini rider looked to possess strong speed as he quickly redressed the balance and moved into the rostrum positions after only a few tours.
Having passed Jack Miller’s factory Ducati soon after, he then set his sights on running down race leader Bagnaia, Bastianini soon pressuring his countryman for the leadership.
He swiftly managed to find a way through with a slick move at Turn 1 just prior to mid-distance, though a mistake at Turn 12 just moments later undid all his hard work.
Having regrouped and saved his rubber across the second half of the contest, Bastianini reignited his attack on his 2023 team-mate as the race entered its climactic stages, the Italian firing through on Bagnaia at Turn 7 on the final tour.
Bagnaia tried everything to get back on terms with Bastianini but ultimately fell short, seeing his run of race wins ended at four as he took the chequered flag just 0.042s adrift of the Gresini-run Ducati – Bastianini scoring his fourth success of the year in the process.
Bagnaia though still managed to make good ground on Quartararo in the title chase after the Yamaha rider was eliminated from contention on the first lap after running into the back of Marc Marquez, the Honda rider having lost forward momentum after suffering a slide.
The impact caused Quartararo to go down immediately, while Marquez’s Honda was mortally wounded and he was forced to retire after crawling back to the pits – though he collided with Takaaki Nakagami which also eliminated the LCR Honda pilot.
Quartararo’s retirement means he holds a slender 10 point advantage with five races remaining, while Aleix Espargaro has closed to within just 17 of the Frenchman after nabbing third towards the end of the encounter.
Binder was looking good to score KTM’s third rostrum result of the year having passed Miller’s Ducati, though Espargaro’s Aprilia began to make progress towards the South African as the race neared its end.
Espargaro would ultimately slide through on the RC16 at Turn 1 with two tours to run, the Spaniard holding on ahead of Binder to the line while Miller completed the top five.
Jorge Martin was sixth for Pramac Racing ahead of VR46’s Luca Marini who impressively recovered from 14th on the grid, while Johann Zarco faded from the top five early on to eighth.
Suzuki’s Alex Rins fought back to ninth having been held up by the Marquez-Quartararo clash on the opening circulation, while Marco Bezzecchi was the best-placed rookie in tenth after passing the sister KTM of Miguel Oliveira at the death.
Maverick Vinales lost a significant amount of time while trying to avoid Nakagami on the opening lap and eventually recovered to 13th ahead of RNF Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow who scored points on his first MotoGP race in a year, the Brit beating factory M1 rider Franco Morbidelli who was a lowly 17th.
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