A vintage year of MotoGP racing draws ever closer to its climax at Aragon this week, as MotoGP closes the run of races in Europe at the fast and scenic circuit in the Spanish semi-desert. Repsol Honda RC213V rider Marc Marquez arrives having extended his title lead, with team-mate Dani Pedrosa in a tense catch-up struggle.

With four races to go after this weekend’s Spanish race, the fight is increasingly tense and every score is crucial. Class rookie and 20-year-old “youngest-ever” multiple record-breaker Marquez leads Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) by 34 points. He need finish only second in the remaining races to clinch the title. At the same time, a single non-finish would make all the difference.

The Honda rider has made a sensational and record-breaking debut in the class, adapting at once from his title-winning Honda-powered Moto2 bike to the full factory prototype RC213V, and bringing an aggressive new force to the front of the battle.

Marquez has won five of 13 races so far this year, starting at the second round and then adding a historic four in a row as his main rivals suffered injury problems. Apart from a single non-finish (he crashed while lying second at Mugello), the class rookie has been on the top-three podium at every race. He has also bounced back from a number of crashes, including finishing a close second after fighting for victory at Silverstone, having dislocated his shoulder the same morning.

Marquez returns to the long and fast Motorland Aragon circuit with one win in his pocket, in Moto2 in 2011, followed by second place last year, on his way to securing the Moto2 title.

Team-mate Pedrosa also has a strong hand to play. The experienced Honda RC213V rider won the Aragon race last year, and second at the previous two races at the new circuit. The 27-year-old, like Marquez from the region of Barcelona, also has ground to make up in the title chase. A broken collar-bone put him out of the German GP. A week later, in a gruelling “damage-control” race at Laguna Seca, Pedrosa showed his tough side, finishing fifth, ahead of similarly-injured rival Jorje Lorenzo (Yamaha), the reigning Champion.

Before the injury Pedrosa had taken two strong wins, and assumed the lead in the championship. Now fully recovered, he aims to show his strength in depth over the final run of races. He and Lorenzo have an equal number of points, and both are hunting for Marquez.


Both Honda riders tested the latest prototype of the 2014 version of Honda’s mighty MotoGP machine after the last round at Misano, but Pedrosa concentrated on his current machine, seeking different settings to improve grip and corner exit. Aragon will be the acid test of his progress, in one of the toughest title battles for years.

Honda’s next-best on the RC213V machine is still LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl, continuing a consistently strong second season in MotoGP for the 2011 Moto2 champion. The major highlight was pole position and second place at Laguna Seca – a historic first pole for a German rider in the premier class. Bradl improved his hold on sixth overall with a canny fifth place in the last race at Misano, taking the position on the last lap after a classic stalk-and-pounce race with rival Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha).

Former 125cc World Champion Alvaro Bautista (Team FUN&GO Gresini RC213V) had been closing on Bradl until a relatively downbeat seventh at Misano after an almost unbroken run of top-five finishes at the previous five rounds. Bautista has a special role in the Honda ranks, race-testing Showa suspension and Nissin brakes made by Japanese associates. Alone in this quest, his improving form reflects strong progress in finding the right settings and balance to make the most of this exclusive equipment.

His team-mate Bryan Staring (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) rides a CBR1000RR-powered prototype in the CRT ranks, and is a grand prix first-timer, with the task of learning new circuits as well as adapting to the new machine. Aragon is one of a handful of tracks where the Australian has previous experience, and he will turn this to his advantage in his quest to add to his points score in his first season.

The Motorland Aragon circuit was inaugurated in 2010 as a fourth Spanish round, and the circuit and facilities proved impressive from the start. The GP track is one of several possible circuit layouts at an extensive motor-sports complex, where facilities range from dirt-track training to a high-level in-house engineering faculty.

Set in dry, open countryside outside the small town of Alcaniz some 100 km from the city of Zaragoza, the circuit offers both variety and speed, with major elevation changes making the challenge of the anticlockwise track unique. It has ten left-handed corners and seven to the right, as well as a long straight of more than 950 metres.

Honda has claimed victory for the past two consecutive years, with Casey Stoner the winner in 2011, and Dani Pedrosa in 2012.



Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez says:

“It will be nice to return home to race in front of our home fans in Aragon this weekend. The track is one of my favourites, with technical first and final sections, and you need to be strong in cornering. We’ve had good results there in the past two years so I hope to continue this way and we’ve also been testing there already this year on the MotoGP machine, so we have some data. After the race in Misano, we had a good test on the Monday and definitely found some positive settings, so I’m looking forward to trying them out this weekend in Aragon!”

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa says:

“I've always done well in Aragon and I’m looking forward to racing in front of our home crowd again. The support is always great and gives you extra motivation. We had a test on Monday after Misano and found some positive things that I hope will help us here in Motorland, especially in corner exit. We’ll have to wait and see.”

GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista says:

“I am still feeling frustrated about the race at Misano because I didn’t have the opportunity to compete as I would’ve liked. It would’ve been nice to give the team and sponsors a good result to celebrate but I felt powerless to ride faster and we still don’t know what really happened because I couldn’t ride comfortably. We didn’t make any changes to the setting compared to practice but the feeling wasn’t the same. We kept the same setting for the test on Monday and I was able to ride almost a second faster, which shows that on Sunday there was something strange happened. Anyway at Aragon we will use the new material from Showa and Nissin that we tested on Monday at Misano and which gave us some positive feedback. Last year we had a lot of problems at this circuit but this year we arrive with a more competitive bike so I am sure that we can be fast like we have been in the last races. The track is unusual with some fast sections and some slow sections; it has a long straight and some long and demanding direction changes. It isn’t easy to find the right compromise with the engine and the setting but one good thing about Aragon is that you can make overtakes at various points on the circuit.”

LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl says:

“We had a test in Aragon this year already so hopefully we are well prepared for the race. It might be an interesting round for us because we are going there with a different set-up compared to the past ... we changed a lot the overall package of the bike in Misano. I am looking forward to this weekend, because the Aragon circuit suits the Honda machines, and with a strong pace we can make another good result ... but no crashes this time!”

GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider Bryan Staring says:

“Misano should have ended up with a good result for me but instead it finished with a retirement. I am still pretty disappointed about that but I certainly haven’t lost any of my determination to finish my first season in MotoGP in the best possible way. Aragon is an opportunity to make up for the result at Misano and I will certainly be giving it my best shot.”

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