Bagnaia absorbed massive pressure over the closing stages of the 27-lap Misano race from Yamaha’s Quartararo as his soft rear tyre faded to take successive MotoGP victories in 2021. Bagnaia nailed his launch from pole position and instantly pulled away by a second on the opening lap, as Ducati team-mate Jack Miller hopped in front
MotoGP
Vinales has been strong all weekend at Misano having first test the Aprilia at the Italian venue ahead of his Aragon debut last week. Ending Friday fastest of all, Vinales eased directly into Q2 and went on to qualify 10th on the RS-GP, 1.056 seconds off pole, but only 0.184 off eighth-placed team-mate Aleix Espargaro.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia took the top spot in qualifying for the second race in a row, snatching a new Misano lap record to lead team-mate Jack Miller – who says he’s happy to play blocker to defend his team-mate in tomorrow’s race – and championship leader Fabio Quartararo on the factory Yamaha. Quartararo fell
In August, SRT announced it would be quitting all three classes of the MotoGP World Championship at the end of the 2021 season having been in existence since 2015 in Moto3, before progressing to Moto2 in 2017 and MotoGP in 2019. This announcement came in the wake of title sponsor Petronas confirming its own exit
Having made his official MotoGP debut with Aprilia last weekend at Aragon, Vinales returns to a circuit in Misano where he already has some knowledge of the bike – having completed a two-day test at the track ahead of his Aragon bow. Vinales was quick from the off in the rain-hit FP1 and ultimately set
The new Aprilia rider’s 1m32.666s set moments before the rain intensified in the first practice session was enough to give the Spaniard top spot overall, with heavy rain returning for the start of the afternoon session. While Vinales says he was “much more calm” with topping FP1, he concedes it will have little bearing to
A sudden downpour just ahead of the second 45-minute practice for the MotoGP class on Friday left the Misano circuit saturated and would ensure Maverick Vinales would end the day fastest of all courtesy of his FP1 time. With the weather forecast unsettled for the whole weekend, the track was quickly populated when pitlane opened
Morbidelli will end the 2021 season as a factory Yamaha rider having been promoted from Petronas SRT to take the seat formerly occupied by Maverick Vinales before his axing last month. On Thursday, Yamaha also confirmed it had signed Morbidelli onto a two-year factory deal through to the end of 2023. Morbidelli was the top
The Honda rider badly broke his right arm in last year’s Spanish Grand Prix and was ruled out of the rest of the COVID-shaped 2020 campaign, while he had to undergo three operations on the injury. He finally returned to action in Portugal in April and has since won the German GP, while adding a
Morbidelli has been long-expected to join the factory Yamaha squad next season following Maverick Vinales’ decision to quit the team a year earlier than planned back in June. However, Vinales’ suspension following the Styrian Grand Prix and subsequent ousting mid-season by Yamaha has forced the Japanese manufacturer to promote Morbidelli from Petronas SRT early to
The six-time MotoGP champion has registered the most crashes of any rider so far in 2021 with 18 having done two fewer rounds than the majority of the field. Marquez was able to minimise the strain on his recovering right arm at the anticlockwise Aragon last weekend to fight to the final lap for victory
Following Francesco Bagnaia’s maiden MotoGP victory at the Aragon GP last weekend, the MotoGP paddock travels to Misano for the first of two races at the Italian circuit this season. Fabio Quartararo continues to lead the MotoGP standings having seen his advantage at the top of the championship trimmed to 53 points by Bagnaia’s win,
Having taken on the role of sole tyre supplier in the MotoGP premier class back in 2016, it has played a key role in creating the closest competition across the championship’s history, with 10 of the closest top 15 finishes of all-time being set since 2018. Michelin had already been set to remain as the
The Honda rider enjoyed his best weekend of his 2021 campaign at Silverstone two weeks ago, when he took profit of the cooler conditions and increased track grip to secure pole and finish the race fifth. After a solid qualifying to eighth at Aragon, Espargaro slumped to 13th in the 23-lap grand prix as he
Marquez fought to the final lap with Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia in last Sunday’s Aragon GP, but ultimately came up second-best to the Italian in a thrilling scrap. The anticlockwise nature of Aragon negated the limitations Marquez still currently has with the right side of his body, while also allowing him to ride around the 2021
The satellite Ducati rider has all but given up on fighting for the 2021 title since the summer break, but believes finishing runner-up is an achievable goal. However, a victory for Francesco Bagnaia on the Ducati and a third for Joan Mir on the Suzuki has put Zarco down to fourth in the standings and
Ducati rider Bagnaia led from pole for the entire 23-lap Aragon GP and repelled a fierce attack from the Honda of Marc Marquez to claim his first MotoGP victory in a thrilling race. The Italian becomes the second rider from Rossi’s VR46 Academy to become a MotoGP race winner after Franco Morbidelli, and claimed his
The factory Ducati rider has come close to victory in MotoGP before, but has been cruelly denied by misfortune and error. However, during the Aragon weekend, Bagnaia proved faultless, displaying strong pace throughout practice before taking pole with a lap-record-smashing effort. He led from the off and stayed in front for all 23 laps of
KTM has overhauled its line-up at the Tech3 squad for 2021, with Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci being moved aside to make way for current Moto2 championship leaders Gardner and Fernandez. Gardner currently leads his rookie team-mate Fernandez at Ajo Motorsport by 39 points in the Moto2 standings, with the latter winning last weekend’s Aragon
The championship leader admitted on Saturday that he felt he didn’t have enough pace to fight for the podium despite qualifying third, but was more confident after Sunday morning warm-up. But from the off Quartararo dropped back in the 23-lap Aragon race, and only just fended off Pramac’s Jorge Martin for eighth. With Ducati’s Francesco
Marquez battled hard with Bagnaia in the 23-lap Aragon contest, launching seven overtakes across the final three laps in an ultimately futile bid to deny the Ducati rider his maiden MotoGP win. The six-time MotoGP world champion is no stranger to battling with Ducatis for victory, having gone head-to-head with Dovizioso – the rider Bagnaia
The six-time MotoGP world champion has registered the most crashes of any rider on the grid from the first 13 rounds of 2021, despite missing the opening two races through injury. After adding two more tumbles to his tally so far this weekend at the Aragon Grand Prix, Marquez now stands on 18 crashes –
The Italian destroyed the Aragon lap record to claim pole with a 1m46.322s and lead a Ducati 1-2 ahead of team-mate Jack Miller, with MotoGP world championship leader Fabio Quartararo securing yet another front-row start. Bagnaia says the key to his pole lap was studying Jorge Martin’s data through how he approached the final corner,
Quartararo scored his 11th-successive front row start this season after putting his Yamaha third on the grid on Saturday at Aragon, albeit 0.397 seconds off poleman Francesco Bagnaia. The Yamaha rider says he expected a strong qualifying run, as even last year when he took a career-worst 18th finish in the Aragon GP he still
Championship leader Quartararo secured his place in Q2 for qualifying this afternoon after firing in a late 1m46.926s, which was strong enough to just withstand an attack from Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro with a 1m46.949s. After 10 minutes of running, only reigning world champion Joan Mir had made an improvement on the combined order. The Suzuki
Miller’s late lap of 1m47.613s gave him top spot at the end of FP2 to beat Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, while Yamaha test rider and stand-in Cal Crutchlow claimed an impressive third place despite saying he is “not bothered” about results over this weekend. Marc Marquez, who dominated FP1 for Honda, failed to put in a
Crutchlow is competing in what is scheduled to be his last race as a stand-in this season, having replaced Franco Morbidelli at Petronas SRT in the Austria double-header before taking over Maverick Vinales’ seat at the factory Yamaha squad for Silverstone and Aragon. The British rider was third fastest at the end of practice and
The biggest news coming into the Aragon weekend is Vinales’ debut with Aprilia following his exit from the factory Yamaha team last month. The nine-time MotoGP race winner – who completed a two-day test at Misano on the RS-GP prior to this weekend – was one of the first out on track and steadily chipped
The relationship between Vinales and Yamaha deteriorated dramatically across the 2021 campaign, with Vinales requesting his two-year deal be terminated at the end of the current campaign. The fallout worsened irreparably in the Styrian GP, when he was found to have deliberately tried to damage his bike’s engine – leading Yamaha to suspend him for
The factory Yamaha rider comes into this weekend’s Aragon GP holding a commanding 65-point lead in the championship after dominating the British GP at Silverstone for his fifth win of the season. Going forward into the final six races, Quartararo only needs to finish third in each of them to be guaranteed the title. But