Marc Marquez aces Aragon as Miller fights for top 10

Ducati’s reigning champ moves to second in the championship as Jack Miller finishes top Yamaha

MotorLand delivered another turn in the title fight as Marc Marquez delivered a crucial win for Ducati Lenovo Team, moving himself up to second in the standings. After collecting 37 points across the weekend, he now trails Jorge Martin by 19, while Bezzecchi also made ground on his Aprilia Racing teammate despite remaining third overall, while Acosta gave the home fans another reason to cheer with a brilliant second place for KTM.

The main race quickly became dramatic from the start. When the lights went out, Marc Marquez attacked again at Turn 1 in a move that echoed the Tissot Sprint, but he later explained in parc ferme that he had left the rear ride height device engaged. That mistake cost him momentum, and Bezzecchi was able to cut back through and lead by Turn 3. In the same opening shuffle, Alex Marquez had to sit up slightly, while Martin forced his way past Marc Marquez and moved Aprilia into a 1-2 ahead of Marc Marquez and Acosta through the first corners.

That order did not last. At the end of the opening lap, Marc Marquez responded by slicing past Martin, and Acosta also capitalised as Martin was pushed off line in the exchange. Bezzecchi had stretched his advantage to around six tenths by then, but Marc Marquez and Acosta had already become the immediate pursuers. Alex Marquez soon picked off Martin as well, and by Lap 5 the leading group was tightening again, with Marc Marquez closing on Bezzecchi and Acosta firmly attached.

The decisive change came on Lap 6 at Turn 15. Marc Marquez launched his move and took over at the front, but Bezzecchi refused to give in easily and ran side by side with the Ducati down the back straight, the pair separated by barely anything at more than 300km/h. Into the final sector, however, the Aprilia rider had to concede. Almost instantly, Acosta also found a way past Bezzecchi, sweeping around the outside to take second.

From there, Acosta stayed right with the race leader. He remained glued to Marc Marquez as the pace intensified, and the KTM rider continued to answer the challenge as the laps clicked away. On Lap 9, Marc Marquez fired in a fastest lap, but Acosta remained in touch. A lap later they set exactly the same lap time, while Bezzecchi in third was even quicker. At half-race distance, the top three were still covered by less than a second, with Alex Marquez fourth but no longer able to go with them, and Martin fifth in clear air.

As the closing laps approached, Marc Marquez finally broke the resistance. Lap records began to fall at the front, and this time neither Acosta nor Bezzecchi could match him. The Ducati rider edged away, took a little breathing room and crossed the line to complete the weekend double.

Acosta’s second place was one of the rides of the day. After criticising himself on Saturday night for missing his grid slot and admitting he had endured a messy day, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider responded with an outstanding Sunday performance to deliver the strongest challenge to Marc Marquez. Bezzecchi completed the podium from pole position, securing his second rostrum finish of the weekend and once again finishing ahead of his points-leading teammate.

Behind the podium, Alex Marquez held fourth throughout the latter stages and collected solid points, while Martin could do no better than fifth.

Fermin Aldeguer returned to action with sixth for BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP, finishing ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio, who recovered useful points for Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team after crashing in the Sprint. A fierce contest then unfolded behind them. Diogo Moreira spent much of the race in eighth for Pro Honda LCR, but Enea Bastianini closed him down in the final laps and made the pass stick on the last lap to take P8.

Another close fight involved Miller and Brad Binder. Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP rider Miller started from 13th, made rapid early progress and climbed to eighth, spending much of the race inside the top 10. In the closing stages, tyre wear began to hurt his pace and he slipped back, with Binder just getting the better of him to secure 10th and leave Miller 11th at the flag. Even so, it was another encouraging and consistent showing from Miller, and further evidence of the progress shown by the YZR-M1 across the weekend as he maintained competitive speed over race distance before the late drop-off.

Joan Mir and Alex Rins followed next, with Luca Marini and Johann Zarco completing the points-paying places. Raul Fernandez had looked threatening in the early laps and was closing on Martin in the fight for fifth before retiring at around one-third distance, a frustrating end for the Silverstone winner. Francesco Bagnaia also failed to finish after an early crash, although the rider was okay.

Aragon now leaves the championship picture even tighter. Marc Marquez has turned a near-disastrous British GP into a major response with 37 points across the weekend and a move to second overall. Martin’s pair of fifth places have cut his advantage to 19, while Bezzecchi’s two podiums have him just 4 points further back in 3rd. Next comes Misano in two weeks, where last year Marquez bested Bezzecchi in an ultra-tight duel. With Marco looking to have regained close to 100% fitness and Martin banking consistent points, the title battle shows every sign of going right down to the wire.

Marc Márquez – 1st
“I’m very happy with this double victory. I did say that the goal was to get as close as possible to 37 points and I’d say we did it. The strategy was the same as yesterday, but I was so focused on turn one at the start that I forgot to disengage the rear height device. Given the mistake, the new target was to not crash after turn one, before getting back to doing my race. I tried to manage tyre wear the best I could before starting to push from lap ten onwards and pull away, and it went well.”

Pedro Acosta – 2nd
“We were the surprise today! I think the progression we made from Friday was quite clear. I’m super-happy for that. I thought we had a big possibility in the middle of the race but I think I used the tires a bit too much at that moment to be with Marc. Anyway, we have to be happy because these results make the atmosphere of the team even better.”

Marco Bezzecchi – 3rd

“All in all, it was a positive weekend, I’m very happy. We arrived in Aragón with low expectations, because last year I was starting from the back. I had two decent races, but from there to being competitive was a different story. Instead, this weekend I was fast: first on Friday, pole position on Saturday. I was missing a few things in the races, but honestly, I didn’t even think I’d be able to be there fighting for the win. So I’m very happy, the guys on my team were astronomical.”

Jack Miller – 11th
“Overall, it was an OK weekend and I gave everything I had in that race. Unfortunately, we had to concede a few places to the KTM guys towards the end. I tried to make it as difficult as possible for them, but once you lose the edge, it gets tough. The bike is working pretty good, honestly. I can’t fault it in the corners. We’re just losing too much on the straights, but we know that and there’s not much we can do about it, so there’s no point complaining. We just have to get on with what we’re doing. I was really happy with my pace, didn’t make any mistakes and, apart from a little touch on the first lap with Joan, it was a pretty clean race all the way to the end. I knew after yesterday’s Sprint that we had to manage the front tyre more, and I did that today. But when you do that, you lose some of the roll speed and it makes things more difficult. The front stayed good all the way to the end, the rear was good too, and I basically ran out of tyre on the last lap, which is how it should be. Until then, I was pretty happy with the performance. Compared to the beginning of the season the bike now feels like we’ve turned it around pretty quickly. The bike is good and it has a couple of key weaknesses that, if we can fix them, would make it competitive. Obviously, when you add 20 horsepower to a motorcycle, it’s going to change its character, but considering it’s a brand-new bike this year, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of turning it around in a short amount of time.”

2026 MOTOGP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 13