Enea Bastianini pipped future Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia to secure an epic fourth MotoGP win of the 2022 season at the Aragon Grand Prix.
The result was only a slight blow to Bagnaia’s championship hopes with Italian ultimately benefitting as reigning world champion - and current leader - Fabio Quartararo crashed out. Bagnaia has overturned a 91-point deficit over the last five races to sit just 11 points behind the Frenchman entering the final five races of the season.
The race started as frantically as it would end. Six-time MotoGP world champion Marquez - racing for the first time since June - gained seven places early in his return to the grid and sat in sixth after qualifying in 13th position.
However, the Honda superstar excellently swerved around Quartararo at Turn 1 but backed off on the exit of Turn 3 in order to save a rear-wheel slide. Quartararo couldn’t react in time and crashed into the back of Marquez, sending the Frenchman sliding across the asphalt while his Yamaha smashed into him.
Thankfully, Quartararo suffered no serious injuries in the incident while Marquez was involved in another incident with Takaaki Nakagami. The Spaniard was ultimately forced to retire at the end of a chaotic opening lap.
At the front, Bagnaia was pulling away from the chasing pack - but not many can outrun the drama of MotoGP. The 25-year-old converted his pole position into a solid lead ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder and teammate Jack Miller.
Bastianini was flying and begin slicing through the chasing pack, moving into second as he set his sights on catching Bagnaia. He used the greater speed of his Gresini-run Ducati GP21 to the Italian’s factory GP22 to overtake his future teammate on lap eight - but an error allowed Bagnaia to return to the front.
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The two stayed close throughout until Turn 7 of the final lap, when Bastianini pulled off an exceptional move on the inside to breeze past Bagnaia and hold on. He secured his fourth win of the season by just 0.042 seconds.
Aprilila’s Aleix Espargaro moved up the inside of Binder to snatch the last spot on the podium. Espargaro is now just 17 points off the championship leader, with Bastianini an outside bet at 48 points adrift with five races left in 2022.
Bastianini’s victory also secured Ducati the constructors’ championship for the third season in succession. As for the riders’ championship, it will go down to the wire as it heads east to Japan with BT Sport presenter and 2003 Superbike World Champion Neil Hodgson excited to see how it unfolds.
“We’re going to really weird and quirky tracks over the last five races that aren’t used a lot,” Hodgson told Mirror Sport . “The riders know the European tracks really well but we haven’t been to Japan since 2019 and only been to Thailand twice before. It’s so hard to predict.”
BT Sport is the home of MotoGP. Catch all the action from the Grand Prix of Japan live on BT Sport on 25 September. For more info go to bt.com/sport/motogp
